"Venomous snakebites, an occupational hazard for women tea workers"

[...]

Assam’s tea industry has 4.17 lakh women workers and most of them work as tea pluckers. Evidence suggests that a considerable number of women tea workers in Assam suffer snakebites each year. And not many of them survive a cobra bite, owing to lack of timely access to antivenom.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) designated snakebites as a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) in 2017 and launched a global initiative in 2022 to halve death and disability due to snakebites by 2030. The WHO estimates that 81,000 to 138,000 people die each year from snakebites worldwide and about three times that number survive but are left with amputations and permanent disabilities. India is among the countries most dramatically affected by snakebites and accounts for almost half the total number of annual deaths in the world.

[...]

In plantations, there is a traditional gendered division of labour. Generally, women carry out the job of harvesting tea for processing. The men primarily work in factories and in other mechanical and heavy labour-intensive work.

As a consequence, women tea plantation workers are more exposed to deadly snakebites than their male counterparts.

[...]

Assam’s tea gardens are home to a rich variety of snakes including king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), monocled cobra (Naja kaouthia), banded krait (Bungarus fasciatus), black krait (Bungarus niger) and several green pit viper species endemic to the region. Each summer, in these tea plantations, there is a spike in incidents of snakebites and snakebite-related deaths, sometimes leading to retaliatory killing of snakes.

Prabhat Das Panika, a social activist from the Baksa district of Assam, said that awareness of snakes and snakebite treatment and access to antivenom treatment facilities have improved over the years in Assam. “Many company-owned big plantations have antivenom treatment facilities these days.”

However, that is not the case in several medium and small tea plantations that dot the remote areas of Assam. Evidence and anecdotes show there is still a critical lack of snakebite management in these tea plantations.

[...]