Tea garden workers observed a 24-hour-long strike in Siliguri, North Bengal, recently.
Workers from over 300 tea gardens located in the Terai and Doars region of Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts took part in the strike.
Saman Pathak, a leader of the Joint Forum representing the tea garden workers, said more than 250 workers from closed and sick gardens had died due to poor medical facilities or malnutrition-related problems.
“The government and the owners of the gardens have not responded to this. Moreover, a heavy amount of workers’ wages are still unpaid by the gardens authorities. That is why we applied to shut down the gardens which responded a lot in this region,” said Pathak
“Yesterday, we also observed really hunger strike in every gardens and we are continue raises our voice for the deprived tea garden workers,” he added.