women: the vulnerable group

Women:the vulnerable group

Pictures of picturesque women in the misty fields plucking tea seems to have distracted people from the real picture of working and living conditions of the workers. Under the patronage system, plus the patriarchal culture of the Tamils, women of the estates are vulnerable to discrimination in the family, workplace and the community. Often, they rely on the management to provide for their basic necessities, as they are unable to self-manage themselves and their family financially. The culture of hierarchy and power from the management created a reliance cycle, from which the families are unable to escape and break away from.

The patriarchal structure of the community reinforced traditional gender roles and increased women’s vulnerability, leaving them in a more subservient status in both the household and community despite their considerable contribution. The female’s side of the family have to provide gold and money to the male side to see their daughters married in the Tamil culture. Then, not only are women expected to work, but they are also expected to take care of the whole family, meaning after a long day’s work, women need to cook dinner and to wake up early the next day to cook breakfast. In some families we have interviewed, mothers even have left the family to work as domestic helpers in countries like Saudi Arabia, leaving behind young children. And the husband may abandon the family with the mother’s long absenteeism.

The problem of alcoholism among men contributed to women’s economic vulnerability. Men would spend the hard earned money of the women on alcohol instead on daily necessities, meaning the family may need to get their salary in advance, resulting in the family being constantly being in the cycle of being in debt and unable to support themselves.

The prevailing problem of alcoholism would lead to the problem of domestic violence and other forms of abuse inflicted on women. People tend to think it is none of their business to be nosy and poke into other people’s family business, instead they would pretend not to know when they heard heated arguments or fights next doors. Incidents of domestic violence could easily go under the radar without any measures to protect women, especially given that women are usually married to the husband’s family, where poor relationship with the mother-in-law means even less support from the family to the women.

The most direct impact measurable from weak women’s right, is children’s health and development. A disadvantaged mother often go into early marriage, starting pregnancy with malnutrition, resulting in birth of low birth weight baby, high stunting rate and high maternal mortality. Mother’s low education level may be resulted from early dropped from school to work and take care of the family with elderly or younger siblings, even if she is able to stay in school, she may be absent often and would be unable to focus with her school work. Such mothers would have little knowledge on nutritious food and child care, which may lead to malnutrition and high infant mortality. The disadvantaged child may continue to follow the mother’s footsteps, creating a interlocked cycle of poor health, further reinforcing women’s vulnerability, depriving them of a chance of good education, to break from the cycle of subservience and discrimination.

Recently, new measures like encouraging women to breastfeed their children up to 2 years of age, offering new rest rooms for women etc was brought forward to improve the working conditions of the workers. Yet, this does not solve the underlying factors like the rigid planation structure, entrenched patriarchal cultural norms, gender based division of labour etc, that contributed most to the violation of economic and socio-cultural rights of women in the planation.

The most direct way to prevent the continual violation of women rights is a fundamental change in people’s mindset is needed, the most viable way is through education. That would mean schools should take more initiation to check on children who are constantly absent. And education should be able to empower women, to allow them to recognise that what they say is important and that they can influence a change. Women should also be encouraged to take up supervisory roles, as women understand the needs of female workers the best, and are able to negotiate with the management for the further betterment of working and living conditions. Furthermore, women should be encouraged to join the political party, the trade union, to reinforce change in the system. Improvement in civil, political, economic and socio-cultural rights is easier said than done,

Behind the lush green fields that the workers work in, the most important worker are women - the tea pluckers - a group of ethnically and economically marginalised group. Yet they are the most likely group to be able to shape a new future of the coming generations of planation workers starting from their children, that brings us to the urgency of empowering women of the plantation sector

To protect the workers, various tea certifications are created to guarantee a better quality of life for workers in the tea estates. Learn the promises behind the labels and logos on your tea, show your care to the ones who contributed to the fine tea. When you look at the pack of tea, it is never going to be the same again; it is more than a product, but the people who work hard to support their family and make you the finest beverage.

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