Tamang, incidentally, led the first tea workers' movement in June 1955, for increase of daily wages from Rs 1.25 a day to Rs 2.50. Six workers had died when police fired on them at Margaret's Hope on June 25 that year, sparking a statewide agitation by the then undivided Communist Party of India. Peace returned to the hills after a few days, but the workers' wages were increased by only two annas a day! Today, 50 years later, Tamang's children (who work in the garden too) and their colleagues are determined not to rest till their demand for higher wages is met.
Owners claim the cost of producing Darjeeling tea is more than the selling price. "Most of the gardens are incurring losses," says Bansal. S.K. Banerjee, who owns Makaibari Tea Estate, the oldest in India, says it takes about Rs 280 to produce one kilo of Darjeeling tea; it sells for only Rs 180 a kilo. Nonsense, say workers, trade unionists and politicians. "If the gardens were incurring losses, they'd have closed down. How are many owners then purchasing or setting up new plantations?"
"The tea we produce sells for at least Rs 1,000 a kilo. The better quality like the first flush and the second flush sell for nothing less than Rs 5,000 a kilo," says Jetha Tamang, a worker at Margaret's Hope. In fact, the planters' contention doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Banerjee himself produces a certificate from Tea Board chairman N.K. Das that one lot of Makaibari tea sold for Rs 18,000 a kilo in 2003! "Most of the Darjeeling tea is sold privately by the owners. Fine, but such sale should be transparent. Many good quality teas fetch as much as Rs 20,000 a kilo internationally," says Chitta Dey, convenor of the Coordination Committee of Tea Plantation Workers.
A visit to the domestic market bears out Dey's view. At Nathmull's, one of the exclusive tea retailing outlets in Darjeeling town, the average price for branded teas (sold by the names of the gardens they come from) is about Rs 1,500 a kilo. Some brands command more than double this. And the workers who toil under pouring rain and damp winds on the steep slopes get at best Rs 3.60 for every kilo of tea leaves they pluck (they pluck about 15 kilos of leaves a day and get Rs 45.90 for it).
"Most of the bushes are old, the quality of leaves has declined. Naturally, prices will keep falling," says Bhattacharjee. Chitta Dey adds: "Large-scale and indiscriminate use of chemicals yielded short-term benefits, and quick profits. But it has damaged the topsoil. Most owners don't know their gardens, and have no direct relationship with their workers." Rai goes a step further; owners, he says, have no respect for the land they own, the tea bushes, the workers they employ or the tea they produce. "They're not interested in anything except money... quick money. Naturally, things are in a big mess today," he says.
Another emerging threat to Darjeeling tea now is tea from Nepal, called Ilam tea. "The bushes there are new, and of very good variety. The estates are small and owners are involved with their gardens. It's tea of good quality and getting better. It's a matter of time before they overtake us," says Banerjee. Other planters privately agree. But they aren't willing to do anything to rejuvenate their gardens. It's a shame. If things don't improve, the world is going to lose the brew that's to tea what champagne is to wine.
