Starving Tea estate workers

Workers of tea estates in the district are still suffering from starvation.

This was confirmed by a survey that the West Bengal Agricultural Workers’ Association (WBAWA) conducted on 120 families in six tea estates here. The recce was carried out in collaboration with International Union of Foodworkers and American Jewish World Service Workers.

“We have found that even now, residents of estates are starving, and the results were confirmed by the standard laid down by World Health Organisation (WHO),” said Swapan Ganguly of the WBAWA.

According to WHO, if the Body Mass Index of a person — his weight divided by the square of his height — is less than 16, then he is considered to be “at high risk of mortality from starvation”. If a population has more than 40 per cent of its adults with a BMI less than 18.5, then it will be called a “starving community”, the WHO guideline stated.

According to the survey, the estates can very well be called a “starving community” since 41.2 per cent of the adult members there has BMI less than 18.5. “We have also found that the BMI of 5.1 per cent of the adults is less than 16. Though the condition at the closed estates is particularly bad, that of the open estates is no better,” Ganguly said.

The team also found that malnutrition has caused different ailments like gastroenteritis, measles and malaria due to which 46 people have died over the past three years.

Officials of the district administration, however, said they were trying their best for betterment of the workers. “Several food-for-work schemes have been implemented in the gardens and mid-day meals have also been started in schools,” said A. Subbiah, district magistrate of Jalpaiguri.

Source > The Telegraph