TEA has a great history in Darjeeling. More than half of the population of Darjeeling is related to Tea industry. One company that has ruled foreign market in tea industry is the Goodricke. This said company has been successful in making its place in the market since last 150 years. To add to this, the company has opened a Tea lounge- The Goodricke Tea Pot last year in the end of 2016. This tea lounge is nestled among the misty greens of the scenic tea estate of Margaret’s Hope. This tea lounge is constructed near a place called Dilaram, few kilometers uphill from kurseong town. One can drop by this tea pot and experience a sip of the world famous Goodricke tea. The market price of this tea company is very high. But the one who buys tea from this company in the domestic as well as the foreign market may hardly know about the living condition of the tea garden laborers. The daily wage of the workers of this garden is just Rs.130. This is beyond imagination how the workers and the whole family can survive with this meager amount when the price of every single item in the market is touching the height of the blue sky. Working for 8 hours a day without even getting the minimum wage is the reality of this garden. The roads are not properly built and the health facilities are worst. There is no question of proper nutrition. The workers have been doing laborious work day and night since centuries just to fill the pockets of the owner. It is because of the hard work of these people that the tea industry is blooming beautifully.
Do the one who drops by this tea lounge to enjoy the scenic beauty of the Margarets’s Hope Tea garden with the aroma of the tea ever think about those labors? Why the owner and the management never thinks about the working class? Why don’t they understand that if these people are not there to work for the garden then their industry would be doomed?
Then it would not be wrong to say that the expensive cup of this tea lounge does not hold the tasty tea of Goodricke but the blood and sweat of the innocent workers.
