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Article

19 Aug 2014

Author:
Pinak Priya Bhattacharya & Jayanta Gupta, Times News Network

Hunger deaths stalk Bengal tea country

The picturesque tea estates of North Bengal hide a gruesome truth - malnutrition deaths. Nearly 100 people have reportedly died in five closed tea gardens since January, with 10 deaths reported this month. Over the past decade and a half, more than 1,000 garden workers and their family members have died in the sprawling but decaying tea estates of Dooars, say NGO workers....With no money to even buy food, workers have been known to resort to extremes, like selling children...the doctor and pharmacist at Raipur tea estate told...over 50% labourers are almost starving. "Most of the labourers who turn up at our health centre are malnourished. We provide them with a few medicines, but they don't have money to buy the other medicines from the market.

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