Gardens of Disparit,y 21 Feb 2012
Tea estate managements in Assam collaborate with the UN to promote
gender equality. Child marriage is common among the socially excluded
tea estate communities including ex-tea estate communities.
Winds of change are sweeping the rather isolated but
self-contained labour communities within the tea gardens in Assam. For
the first time, the tea estate managements have joined hands with the
UNICEF to address issues of gender discrimination including child
marriage and promoting the rights of the child.
“Child
marriage often results in girls leaving schools, it impacts their
health and early motherhood results in anaemia as the body is not mature
enough to deal with marriage and motherhood,” Jenema Patia, community
mobiliser of Muskaan Girls Club in Namroop Tea Estate. With a membership
of 60 adolescent girls, the Club is hugely popular. “We come here every
Sunday to discuss our issues including child marriage and try to find
solutions and convince elders in the community that child marriage is
not good for girls,” she adds.
This group saved a
17- year-old girl who was one of their members, from being thrown out
from her house by her parents after she was spotted by her brother
talking to a boy. The brother threatened to report the incident at home,
and fearing admonition from the family, the girl spent the night alone
in a tea garden. When she was brought home the next morning, the word
spread like wild fire that she had eloped with the man. “The girl tried
her best to explain the situation but the parents would just not believe
her and wanted her out from the house for bringing a bad name to the
family. It was because of our intervention that she is still at home and
now wants to enrol in a school,” Jenema explained.
Tea cultivation is a predominant occupation in Assam and Dibrugarh
district accounts for nearly 55 per cent of the tea estates in the
State. Most of the workers are descendants of 19th and 20th century
tribal migrants from Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal
who live in well demarcated labour lines within the estates as closed
communities. Even after retirement from active employment, they continue
to live close to their labour lines and follow the same customs and
traditions as the rest of the community.
While
Dibrugarh has a lower prevalence of child marriage compared to the State
as a whole, the practice has been observed to be commonly adopted by
the socially excluded tea estate communities including ex-tea estate
communities. A study conducted by the Assam Branch of the Indian Tea
Association (ABITA) in 2006 across 50 tea estates indicated that one
fourth of the total respondents felt it was appropriate for girls to
marry between the ages of 14 to 18 years. Besides generic factors which
contribute to child marriage across the country, lack of education
facilities (beyond primary schooling provided by the managements),
availability of employment opportunities at an early age (women could
get employed as early as 10 years for plucking of tea leaves and boys at
15 years) and the common practice of elopement among the young boys and
girls were also cited as the reasons for early marriage.
In 2006, gaining access to communities living inside the tea estates
was a major challenge and it could be obtained through ABITA. The UNICEF
adopted a two pronged strategy with ABITA and set up the Adolescent
Girls Clubs to create an atmosphere of openness where parents and the
girls themselves were comfortable in discussing their issues with their
peers. One of the key issues during meetings is child marriage and
possible solutions to prevent it. There have been instances where club
members who have had specific information on child marriage taking place
in the community have successfully counselled family members against
it. Between 2008 and 2010, 144 child marriage cases were reported by the
Adolescent Girls Clubs in Dibrugarh and the members played an important
role in preventing around 12 marriages by counselling. “The numbers may
not be high but this is just a beginning of the process but the number
could have been much more than 144,” Vedprakash Gautam, Child Protection
Officer, Assam Field Office, UNICEF said.
“The tea
estates management have also introduced changes in their practice and
we now no longer extend loans to families where girls are married
early,” Sandeep Ghosh, secretary of ABITA said. But this is always not
successful, as the families often get loans from banks or can approach
money-lenders that often add to their financial burden. It was through
the Girls Club that a case of sexual abuse was also brought to the
notice wherein a young girl was being sexually assaulted by her uncle
with whom she was living. Once it became public, the girl was sent back
to her mother. While no action has been taken on the erring uncle so far
UNICEF hopes that ABITA would proactively take up the matter so that it
is a deterrent, Mr Gautam said. In addition to AGCs, UNICEF also runs
Young Child Survival Programme for mother and child health, hand wash
programme for better hygiene and sanitation and several nutrition-based
programmes in these tea estates.
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