Assam Tea Employees Welfare Board Schemes (Tea Garden Worker Welfare)

What is the Assam Tea Employees Welfare Board?

Assam Tea Employees Welfare Board is the state body that runs welfare schemes for tea garden workers and their families in Assam. The Board functions under the Commissionerate of Labour in the Labour Welfare Department, Government of Assam, and its office is at Ganeshguri Chariali, Guwahati - 781006.

Assam's tea industry employs one of the largest concentrated workforces in the country, spread across gardens in Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Sonitpur, Golaghat, Cachar and Karimganj. Plantation labour has its own legal regime, the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 and the Plantations Labour Rules, 1956, which puts obligations for housing, drinking water, creches, canteens and medical facilities directly on the garden management. The Welfare Board's schemes sit on top of that statutory floor and are aimed at the things the garden itself does not provide: vocational training, education support for children, hostels, and a place to stay when a patient must travel to a medical college.

According to the Commissionerate of Labour, the Board's schemes are grouped around training, education, child care, accommodation and sports. They are delivered in kind, a training seat, a hostel bed, a free educational kit, with a stipend of Rs 500 per month during residential training rather than a general cash transfer.

The Board's main schemes

• Residential training for female plantation workers. A ten-month course at the Mezenga Centre covering health, hygiene, family welfare and child care along with vocational skills, with free accommodation and a Rs 500 monthly stipend.
• Craftsmen training, electrician and mason trades at the Rowriah Labour Welfare Training Centre, again with free accommodation and a Rs 500 monthly stipend.
• Community centres to 18 centres across Assam teaching carpentry, tailoring, knitting, weaving and embroidery, with training material supplied free.
• Student hostels, accommodation for tea garden college students at 13 locations for boys and at Tezpur for girls, plus hostels for nursing trainees.
• Child care centres — 7 pre-primary centres providing free educational kits and mid-day meals.
• Rest houses for patients to 2 permanent rest houses for tea garden patients attached to Assam Medical College and Silchar Medical College, available at reduced rates.
• Sports assistance; financial support through the Tea Sports Control Board for promising young sportspersons from the tea tribe communities.

Who is eligible for tea garden worker welfare in Assam?

You are eligible if:

• You are a plantation worker in an Assam tea garden, that is, a person employed in a plantation for payment, directly or through an agency, to do skilled, unskilled, manual or clerical work.
• You are a contract worker on a plantation employed for more than 60 days in a year, since the statutory definition expressly brings such workers in.
• You are the spouse or child of a plantation worker, for the schemes aimed at families; hostels, child care centres, community centre training and sports assistance.
• For the ten-month residential course, you are a woman plantation worker.
• For craftsmen training, you meet the trade-wise entry requirement notified for the electrician or mason course at Rowriah.

You cannot apply if:

• You are a medical officer attached to the plantation, who is excluded from the definition of a worker under the Plantations Labour Act.
• You draw monthly wages exceeding Rs 10,000, which takes you outside the statutory definition of a plantation worker.
• You hold a managerial or administrative post, irrespective of what you are paid.
• You were engaged only for temporary construction or maintenance work on the plantation rather than plantation work itself.
• You are a construction worker, shop employee or transport worker. Those categories are covered by the separate Assam Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board and the Motor Transport Workers Welfare Scheme, not by the Tea Employees Welfare Board.

Seats in residential training courses and hostels are limited by the physical capacity of each centre, so meeting the eligibility test does not by itself guarantee admission in a given batch.

What documents are required?

The garden employment certificate is the document the whole application turns on. It is what establishes that the applicant, or the applicant's parent, is a plantation worker rather than a general resident of the tea belt.

How to apply for Assam tea garden welfare schemes

1. Ask your tea garden manager or welfare officer which Board schemes are currently open. Gardens receive circulars from the Commissionerate of Labour when residential training batches and hostel admissions are notified.
2. Obtain a garden employment certificate from the management confirming that you, or your parent, work on the plantation.
3. Collect the application form for the specific scheme; residential training, craftsmen training, community centre course, hostel admission or child care centre enrolment: from the garden office or the Labour Inspector of your circle.
4. Fill the form and attach the employment certificate, Aadhaar, age proof, educational certificates where relevant, and photographs.
5. Submit the application through the garden management or the Labour Inspector, who forwards it to the Assam Tea Employees Welfare Board.
6. Keep a dated acknowledgement and follow up with the Labour Inspector, or write to the Board at Ganeshguri Chariali, Guwahati - 781006.
7. Report to the centre on the date of admission if selected, carrying the original documents for verification.

For a written query or a complaint, the Commissionerate of Labour can be reached at labour.commissioner@assam.gov.in or labourcommissionerassam@yahoo.com, and the office of the Labour Commissioner is at Shram Bhawan, B.K. Kakati Road, Ulubari, Guwahati - 781007.

There is no separate online application portal published for these Board schemes. Applications run through the garden and the labour circle office, which is why the manager or welfare officer is the right first stop rather than a website.

What does the tea garden management have to provide anyway?

Separately from the Board's schemes, the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 and the Plantations Labour Rules, 1956 place statutory duties on the garden itself, and the Commissionerate of Labour enforces them through inspections. These statutory facilities cover drinking water, sanitation, medical facilities, creches, canteens, recreation and housing for workers, along with prescribed safety measures for spray workers who handle pesticides.

A worker who is denied a statutory facility does not apply to the Welfare Board for it. The correct route is a complaint to the Labour Inspector of the circle, who has inspection powers over the plantation, and then to the Commissionerate of Labour.

Where do I complain or follow up?

• Assam Tea Employees Welfare Board, Ganeshguri Chariali, Guwahati - 781006.
• Labour Inspector of your circle, the officer with jurisdiction over your garden and the first person to approach in person.
• Commissionerate of Labour, Assam, Shram Bhawan, B.K. Kakati Road, Ulubari, Guwahati - 781007 to labour.commissioner@assam.gov.in or labourcommissionerassam@yahoo.com.
• Assistant Labour Commissioner, Dhubri, A.C. Das Gupta Road, near Tetultola, Dhubri - 783301, for the lower Assam districts served by that office.
• The central CPGRAMS public grievance portal, which the Commissionerate lists as the route for grievances not resolved at department level.

No fee is payable for a training seat, a hostel place or a child care centre admission under these schemes. Training material, boarding and lodging are provided free, and the Rs 500 monthly stipend is paid to the trainee, so any demand for money in exchange for a seat should be reported to the Labour Inspector.

A note on what this page does not claim

Claims circulate online that Assam tea garden workers receive a specific free ration entitlement or a Rs 5 lakh health cover under a dedicated tea garden scheme. Those figures could not be confirmed on the Commissionerate of Labour or Assam Tea Employees Welfare Board pages, and they are therefore not stated as entitlements here. Tea garden families do access food security through the National Food Security Act and health cover through Ayushman Bharat on the same terms as other eligible households in Assam, but those are separate programmes with their own eligibility lists, not benefits of the Tea Employees Welfare Board. Check your ration card status with the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department and your Ayushman Bharat eligibility on the national scheme's own portal rather than assuming garden employment alone confers either.