The Covid19 pandemic has affected all our lives. There are businesses that have adapted to having employees work remotely from the safety of their homes, where they can maintain physical distance with non-family members to ensure they don’t contract this deadly virus.
Not all businesses are as lucky to have this flexibility. As a tea lover, my heart goes out to tea plantation workers who depend on daily wages to earn their livelihood. Afterall it is their effort that adds that aromatic, heavenly cup of tea to our daily morning routine.
Though I have discovered and enjoy all kinds of tea over the years, it is the black tea that we all grew up on. Darjeeling Tea from India allegedly has the champagne of teas and being an avid tea drinker I can conform to its super high quality. March-April is when plantation workers pluck the tea leaves on the hills of Darjeeling. India had enforced a 3 week lockdown during the plucking season, which adversely affected the production of one of the finest Black teas in the world. As per Economic Times the tea production of the first flush variety in North India is going to be down b 6-7%.
While the commodity tea suppliers can sustain themselves as they have prior stocks, the specialty tea supplies are going to be badly affected as they are produced as per demand. While the demands would shore during the lockdown and enhanced online buying, the constraints on production due to Covid19 would not be able to fulfil it.
The situation in India has gone from bad to worse and the number of Covid19 cases keeps going up. Business aside, the workers working on these plantations are facing a dilemma of whether they go out to work with the risk to contract the deadly virus or stay home and with no income to sustain themselves. Local authorities in these plantation areas did start initiatives to collect funds to help these workers but it is yet to be seen how long these measures can help them sustain.
Difficult times for all of us but especially for the underprivileged workers who depend on working daily to get food on their table. Leave a comment below to suggest ways in which we can help these workers. Keep safe and keep healthy.
“If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” Dalai Lama
For more on COVID 19 impacts on Tea Industry click here.
I do consider
all of the ideas you have introduced for your post.
They’re very convincing and will certainly work.
Still, the posts are too quick
for beginners. May you please lengthen them a little from next time?
Thanks for the post.