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Article

19 Aug 2014

Author:
Sujoy Dhar, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Malnutrition deaths in India's tea gardens highlight worker abuses

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More than 100 tea workers in eastern India have died due to malnutrition-related diseases, activists say, highlighting the persistent poverty and exploitation of tens of thousands of Indians working in the country's tea plantations...The wages are abysmal. So when there is a closure the poor workers or their family members have neither the fat on their bodies nor the balance in their banks to survive...Together with poor access to clean water and sanitation, this has made them more susceptible to diseases such tuberculosis, fungal and respiratory infections and diahorrea...Their children, especially their daughters, are often vulnerable to traffickers who promise them jobs as maids in the city, but in reality exploit them as domestic slaves, exposing them to physical and sexual abuse.

 

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