Improving Labour Productivity through Human Resource Development: A Case Study on Assam Tea Plantation Workers

Abstract

Tea plantations in India employ more than a million permanent workers, and perhaps twice as many seasonal labourers. This makes the industry the largest private-sector employer in the country. Declining productivity in the tea sector at the all India level gets manifested in the tea gardens of Assam much more pronouncedly than in any other state or region. While low labour productivity is frequently cited as the main reason behind faced by the sector, other variables such as inability to expand the area under cultivation, ageing of the tea bushes, inadequate replanting of bushes, inadequate investments in plant modernisation and labour welfare measures, and traditional, cost-ineffective management practices have also contributed towards the near stagnation of production Thus the study assumes greater significance in reviewing on violation of welfare benefits to the workers and how it is impacting in decreasing the productivity level of labour in the Assam tea plantation.

Keywords: Labour, Productivity, Tea Plantations

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