Today is Friday, the day for weekly payment in most of the tea gardens in Assam. In this part of the world, and mostly among the tea garden labourers, salaries are paid on a weekly basis and in hard cash. Raju Mirdha stands in a long queue at the garden office of Cinnamara Tea Estate in the afternoon and waits for his turn to receive his payment in cash for the week he has worked hard. The same goes for the four lakh workers in around 800 tea gardens of the state who opened their bank accounts in 2017.
“Though most of our labourers have bank accounts, there are no ATMs in our tea garden or nearby. If a labourer wants to transfer his salary to digital mode, he would need to take a day off to go to the nearest ATM to withdraw his salary. It is a loss of person-days and a hassle," stated a clerk in Cinnamara Tea Estate, an Assam Tea Corporation garden in the Jorhat district of Upper Assam.
At Mukrong Tea Estate, held under Barooah Associates Limited and located in the Golaghat district, there are approximately 1,200 labourers, including 600 permanent employees. The garden has a concrete house built to house an ATM counter. However, ironically, despite the structure being in place, the ATM never reached the garden. This has forced people to resort to the colonial practice of cash payment.
Ritu Tanti, an employee of Mokrung Tea Estate, said, “they constructed this structure a year ago, but until now, we don’t have the ATM. In the early days of the digitalisation process in the garden, a mobile ATM van used to come to the garden on salary days. This, too, was a hassle as the queues to withdraw money were long, and many people didn’t know the nuances of ATM operation. Eventually, people had to fall back to the more convenient mode of receiving salaries in cash."
During Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to the state in February 2020, she rapped State Bank of India (SBI) for the bank’s failure to operationalise bank accounts of tea garden workers, which were non-compliant with know your customer (KYC) norms. She said the state government could not transfer Rs 2,500 each to 30 per cent or around 2.5 lakh of the total 8 lakh tea garden workers’ bank accounts in the aftermath of demonetisation due to the error. Sitharaman had called the bank “heartless" and “inefficient" and asked SBI to ensure access to banking facilities for tea garden workers.
In SBI’s letter to the Principal Secretary of the State Government on January 21, 2023, the bank highlighted several issues that impede the bank from setting up ATMs in the tea gardens of Assam:
- Tea garden management has not started the construction process of ATMs due to high-cost involvement.
- The tea garden management has reiterated their inability to construct the ATM room as per requirements due to the non-availability of funds.
- Banks are unable to install ATMs due to the non-cooperation of the tea garden management.
- Some tea gardens have shown disinterest in installing ATMs.
The SBI, in its letter to the Finance department, also mentioned that in some cases, installations of ATMs are delayed due to the non-availability of Cash Replenishment Agencies. The SBI has requested the department to issue necessary directions to the respective district authorities to intervene in resolving the issues of tea gardens.
The Commissioner Secretary to the Government of Assam, Finance (IF) Department had responded to the Deputy Commissioners of the district stating that banks are in the process of installing 39 ATMs in the tea garden areas. “However, as per letter received from the General Manager, State Bank of India & Convenor, SLBC, there are various issues faced for installation of ATMs," it stated with an attached list of district-wise list of tea garden along with bank name and status of installation of ATMs as on December 31, 2022.
“You are therefore requested to take up the matter with the Tea Garden authority to resolve the issues for installation of ATM in Tea Garden areas of Assam," it added.
Dipanjal Deka, Secretary of the Tea Association of India and Assam, said that banks in smaller towns of Assam run with skeletal staff. “Therefore, it is arduous for them to operate the ATMs in far-flung tea gardens and to refill cash. In most gardens, the ATM houses are ready, but the banks have failed to install the ATMs."
“It is always good for the garden management to go digital as it saves all the ordeal of writing to the Superintendent of Police for the required security, engaging men from the garden, arranging for a vehicle, and bearing security expenses in carrying the cash to the garden every week," added Deka.
According to the state government website, there are nearly 800 tea gardens in the state, employing lakhs of people. One year ago, 330 tea gardens were identified as inaccessible to banking facilities.
A drive was undertaken after the Assam government flagged many tea garden areas in upper, northern, and riverine areas of the state that do not have access to banking facilities. It pointed out that tea gardens constitute 21 per cent of Assam’s geographical location but do not have ATMs or bank branches nearby. The government also raised the issue in a State-Level Bankers’ Committee meeting.
A former managerial employee of Khoomtai Tea Estate in Upper Assam explained that the tea garden initially continued with payments made into the accounts of the labourers, but updating the KYC of the accounts was a major issue as most of the workers did not have a proper birth certificate. Moreover, many accounts were foreclosed as there were no transactions for a long period.
Although digitalisation has not been successful in percolating into the lives of tea garden labourers regarding their salaries, their attendance in the garden is being recorded through the Blue Eye app. The clerk is required to click a picture of the employee, which is automatically linked to the attendance.
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