Dogmatic Communists have ruled West Bengal for over a quarter of century now, nonetheless, they have in no way grasped the structure on which the Tea Gardens of Dooars is operationally managed.
Continually since the British Era, dependents of Tea Garden workers numbering close to 700,000 people living in 100 odd tea gardens in Darjeeling Hills and Dooars have no ownership right to their ancestral residential homes despite their private investment on extension, repair and maintenance. The status of their properties are limited to that of a “labour quarter” subject to lease contract of the management company and state as the land owners and not secured by individual legal documents in favour of the workers.
This has resulted in workers not being able to capitalize on their assets, thereby, forcing them to be continually be “bonded as a labour” of the company presently managing the Garden and it amounts to their ancestral land and residence being a form of collateral submitted to the tea company in exchange of work and right to reside.
This current structure of ownership/management of Tea Garden is a continuation of British Raj structure and the status of tea estate workers has remained same ever since and the government of West Bengal never bothered to apply the famous communist dogma of “land to the tiller” here unlike the rest of Bengal. The feudalistic structure remained with White Bada Sahebs being replaced by Calcutta based Brown Sahebs continuing with the privilege of absolute rule but with no accountability on regulation, welfare and local development.
The state of Adivasi people in Dooars area is in complete despair with every indicator about these communities being below state and national average. Indigenous people of Dooars like the Koch and Totos are completely lagging behind in all parameters of human development such as such as literacy percentage, per capita income, school enrollment percentage, access to higher education, access to medical services or unemployment percentage.
We often hear about cases of suicides and hunger related deaths especially amongst the Adivasi community and further their indigenous language and culture is in process of being eroded owing to their strength of population numbers being diluted due to the arrival of mainstream ethnic Nepalis as per 1950 Indo Nepal agreement in traditional Adivasi land.
Evidently, the cause of the Adivasi community in Dooars and North Bengal has never being prominently featured in West Bengal’s governments’ priority list despite the Marxist government being one of the world’s longest ruling government.
India as a nation has one of the fastest growing economies and is being lauded for the continuous growth that it has managed since last one decade, however, many independent studies continues to place West Bengal in the bottom rung of investment attractiveness and lags behind in all the parameters in creating investment friendly environment.
Years of cadre driven philosophy of Marxist Government has infiltrated all institution of government, including the law and order machinery hence the West Bengal has not been able to attract neither domestic nor foreign investment thereby not being able to create employment and opportunities for it’s people to partake.
Dooars possesses unique potential in the areas of specialized agriculture, floriculture, hydropower, handicrafts for exports, non timber forest products such as medicinal and aromatic plants and furthermore on service sectors such as Tourism and Information Technology Enabled sectors ( ITES).
Governance either federal, state or local is the key issue and will continue to be a key issue and governments world wide including some state governments within India are embarking on steep learning curve to improve government services such essential utilities, tighter regulations on environment, justice delivery, human rights, law and order, education, health, employment and broad based local economic development and other continuously evolving infrastructural requirement such as telecom, transport and digital communication. But the West Bengal Government in the last 60 years of post independence period neither have shown any vision to make use of the huge potentials of this strategically located region, nor have displayed any political commitment and will to bring this region into national mainstream. As a result, this dooars & terain region has remained backward, den of all activities that hamper national security and people with deep rooted frustration. More seriously, the Bengal administration because of conscious act of dividing people on various grounds have turned out to be the finest practitioner and ace custodian of internal colonialism. West Bengal Government’s Health care system is considered to be one of the poorest in the world and for years’ variety of independent media has highlighted the deplorable conditions of state run hospitals across West Bengal. Similarly, the state run educational facilities are poorly funded and the majority of public prefer privately run educational services despite the Marxist promises of competitive educational quality.
Continually since the British Era, dependents of Tea Garden workers numbering close to 700,000 people living in 100 odd tea gardens in Darjeeling Hills and Dooars have no ownership right to their ancestral residential homes despite their private investment on extension, repair and maintenance. The status of their properties are limited to that of a “labour quarter” subject to lease contract of the management company and state as the land owners and not secured by individual legal documents in favour of the workers.
This has resulted in workers not being able to capitalize on their assets, thereby, forcing them to be continually be “bonded as a labour” of the company presently managing the Garden and it amounts to their ancestral land and residence being a form of collateral submitted to the tea company in exchange of work and right to reside.
This current structure of ownership/management of Tea Garden is a continuation of British Raj structure and the status of tea estate workers has remained same ever since and the government of West Bengal never bothered to apply the famous communist dogma of “land to the tiller” here unlike the rest of Bengal. The feudalistic structure remained with White Bada Sahebs being replaced by Calcutta based Brown Sahebs continuing with the privilege of absolute rule but with no accountability on regulation, welfare and local development.
The state of Adivasi people in Dooars area is in complete despair with every indicator about these communities being below state and national average. Indigenous people of Dooars like the Koch and Totos are completely lagging behind in all parameters of human development such as such as literacy percentage, per capita income, school enrollment percentage, access to higher education, access to medical services or unemployment percentage.
We often hear about cases of suicides and hunger related deaths especially amongst the Adivasi community and further their indigenous language and culture is in process of being eroded owing to their strength of population numbers being diluted due to the arrival of mainstream ethnic Nepalis as per 1950 Indo Nepal agreement in traditional Adivasi land.
Evidently, the cause of the Adivasi community in Dooars and North Bengal has never being prominently featured in West Bengal’s governments’ priority list despite the Marxist government being one of the world’s longest ruling government.
India as a nation has one of the fastest growing economies and is being lauded for the continuous growth that it has managed since last one decade, however, many independent studies continues to place West Bengal in the bottom rung of investment attractiveness and lags behind in all the parameters in creating investment friendly environment.
Years of cadre driven philosophy of Marxist Government has infiltrated all institution of government, including the law and order machinery hence the West Bengal has not been able to attract neither domestic nor foreign investment thereby not being able to create employment and opportunities for it’s people to partake.
Dooars possesses unique potential in the areas of specialized agriculture, floriculture, hydropower, handicrafts for exports, non timber forest products such as medicinal and aromatic plants and furthermore on service sectors such as Tourism and Information Technology Enabled sectors ( ITES).
Governance either federal, state or local is the key issue and will continue to be a key issue and governments world wide including some state governments within India are embarking on steep learning curve to improve government services such essential utilities, tighter regulations on environment, justice delivery, human rights, law and order, education, health, employment and broad based local economic development and other continuously evolving infrastructural requirement such as telecom, transport and digital communication. But the West Bengal Government in the last 60 years of post independence period neither have shown any vision to make use of the huge potentials of this strategically located region, nor have displayed any political commitment and will to bring this region into national mainstream. As a result, this dooars & terain region has remained backward, den of all activities that hamper national security and people with deep rooted frustration. More seriously, the Bengal administration because of conscious act of dividing people on various grounds have turned out to be the finest practitioner and ace custodian of internal colonialism. West Bengal Government’s Health care system is considered to be one of the poorest in the world and for years’ variety of independent media has highlighted the deplorable conditions of state run hospitals across West Bengal. Similarly, the state run educational facilities are poorly funded and the majority of public prefer privately run educational services despite the Marxist promises of competitive educational quality.
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