Staff Reporter
Guwahati: Though the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 makes it mandatory for tea estate (TE) managements to provide and maintain medical facilities, including qualified medical practitioners/doctors, there are many tea gardens in Assam that are functioning without doctors.
Out of the 807 TEs in the state, only some have doctors, while a few don’t have and a few others have only visiting doctors.
As of July this year, there were only 272 doctors in TEs, besides 243 visiting doctors. The figures prove that not all the tea gardens have doctors. Non-appointment of doctors by TE managements often put workers involved in various activities of a tea garden at great risk.
For instance, some tea gardens have tea factories where accidents often occur. If there is no medical facility or doctor in the TE, the injured often have to be rushed to the nearest health centre, which is often located far away. This results in loss of precious time, thereby risking the lives of those injured.
Similarly, those who pluck tea leaves sometimes get bitten by insects and even snakes. In the absence of doctors locally, they have to be rushed to health centres outside the tea garden, again at great risk to the injured. The situation becomes particularly alarming during health emergencies at night. In the case of absence of medical facility or doctor, attendants face huge problems in transporting patients outside the tea garden.
The government has in recent times initiated several steps for welfare of tea communities, including providing them land rights and extending them benefits under various welfare schemes, including Jal Jeevan Mission.
However, the absence of health facilities, including doctors, in many TEs has deprived thousands of tea workers in Assam from basic healthcare.
Observers stressed that it was high time the government reviews tea gardens where medical facilities are non-existent, forcing managements to extend healthcare to TE workers as per the provisions of the Plantations Labour Act, 1951.