Poor Health Facilities; Labour Department Files Cases; TEs Least Bothered

Guwahati: Some tea estates do not provide medical facilities 'as mentioned in the Plantation Labour Act' to garden workers. It led the State Labour Department to file cases against a few tea estates on the charge of violating the Act. However, the gardens concerned are least bothered as the penalty is too meagre.

According to Rule 36 of Section 10 of the Act, a hospital run by a tea garden with 21-100 permanent labourers should have a doctor, two pharmacists, two nurses, separate female and male wards, isolation wards etc. But the Labour Department does not find many such facilities in the TE-run hospitals during its inspection.

A medical inspector said, "We file cases against tea gardens for violating healthcare norms. They, however, are least bothered as the penalty is too meagre. It necessitates amendments to the Plantation Labour Act."

Seven central or referral hospitals are in the tea gardens of Upper Assam and three in the North Bank. Medical inspectors found during inspections that the OTs (operation theatres), blood banks, X-Ray machines, ECGs, USGs, etc., are almost non-functional in the central hospitals, the inspection report said.

The seven central hospitals are in Margherita, Beesakope near Doomdooma, Dirial near Tengakhat, Longsoal in Tinsukia, Panitola in Tinsukia, Balijan North in Dibrugarh and Doomur Dullung near Moran. The three hospitals in the North Bank are Monabari, Fulbari and Paneri.

The inspectors only found Chabua Central Hospital as a fully-functional referral hospital managed by the Tata Group.

According to sources, the State government has stressed health facilities in the tea gardens, especially for infants and mothers. However, general patients are facing healthcare problems. The violation of the Act is more in the medium-sized gardens that pay scant attention to workers' healthcare. When the Labour Department queries them on their health facilities, the stereotyped reply from such gardens is 'doctors and nurses are not willing to work in TEs'.

According to Labour Department sources, the support from the Government' can help convert the nearly-defunct referral hospitals in tea gardens to group hospitals, exclusively for the tea garden populace. The government can even collect a minimum cess or levy for the smooth functioning of such hospitals.

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