The Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) escalated its ongoing agitation across the state on Thursday by staging a coordinated three-hour sit-in protest to press for long-pending socio-economic and constitutional demands affecting the tea garden community. Spearheaded by student leaders and backed by widespread community participation, the demonstrations centered on three core issues: the immediate grant of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the tea tribes community, formal land ownership rights for tea garden workers residing in estate lines, and a substantial increase in daily wages governed strictly under the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. In Upper Assam, the protests drew particularly strong turnouts, with hundreds of demonstrators gathering peacefully yet resolutely in front of the Sadiya Co-District Commissioner’s office as well as in the major tea hub of Doomdooma, raising slogans and submitting memoranda urging both state and central authorities to fulfill their commitments without further delay. Protest leaders emphasized that despite forming the backbone of Assam’s globally renowned tea industry for generations, tea garden workers continue to face systemic marginalization, inadequate living conditions, lack of secure land tenure, and stagnant wages that fail to keep pace with rising living costs. By mobilizing across key tea-producing belts, ATTSA aimed to send an unmistakable message to policymakers that continued inaction on ST categorization and fair wage implementation would lead to intensified democratic movements across the state. Meanwhile, alongside these widespread protests over land rights and worker welfare, administrative action regarding land governance unfolded elsewhere in Upper Assam on Friday. In Lakhimpur district, local authorities carried out a major eviction drive aimed at reclaiming encroached government land across the No. 1 and No. 2 Professional Grazing Reserve areas located in Boginodi. During the operation, district officials successfully cleared approximately 19 bighas of protected grazing reserve territory that had been illegally occupied by 132 families, comprising a total of 704 individuals. Together, the statewide sit-in led by ATTSA demanding legal land pattas and constitutional protections for tea workers, alongside the administrative eviction drive in Lakhimpur to clear unauthorized settlements, underscore the deeply complex and sensitive dynamics surrounding land rights, livelihood security, and administrative enforcement across Assam.
Tea Garden Workers Demand Constitutional Recognition and Land Pattas Amid Statewide Protests
