(ANS – Dimapur) – India is one of the largest producers of tea in the world. The districts of Golaghat, Sibsagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia in the Indian state of Assam, in the northeastern region of the country, have a large number of tea estates. But the tea gardens are tended to by labourers who, despite working long hours, often do not earn enough wages to meet their basic needs or escape poverty. For this reason the Salesians in Dimapur started the “Bosco Tea Project”.

Many of the tea labourers own their own small parcels of land but, for various reasons, leave the land uncultivated while they leave home to work at larger tea estates. In times of financial crisis, they are often forced to mortgage their land for small loans and when they are unable to repay the loans, the land is forfeited.

Salesians in India, aware of this difficult situation, are working to provide opportunities for tea laborers to break the cycle of poverty. The Bosco Tea Project, funded by AIDA, the development wing of the Dimapur Province of the Salesians of Don Bosco, was developed in 2008 to help tea garden labourers in Assam. Beginning with just one sponsor, the project was able to help 50 families. Today, with the support of five sponsors, the project is helping more than 700 families.

The goal of the project is to help tea labourers begin to cultivate their own land giving them an opportunity to become owners of their own small tea gardens and develop a long-term sustainable income. The tea labourers are given start-up assistance either through financial resources or through the donation of tea saplings. Labourers are also taught business and technical skills relating to the tea market and, capitalizing on their years of working on larger tea estates, they are able to develop a sustainable income to help them escape poverty.

“AIDA has worked a miracle. I received 3800 tea saplings in 2008-2009. Today I get around 50 kgs of green leaves every week,” says Mathias Soreng, in Golaghat, Assam.  “Earlier I depended on money lenders for credit for my household expenses, and I never had money in my pocket. Today, I have cleared my debts and there’s money in my pocket, thanks to AIDA.”

Published 06/10/2014