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Rajagopal, 47, is a field supervisor and member of the Joint Body who has worked at Chamraj for 26 years. He has seen his mother benefit from the pension scheme and is reassured about his own retirement. He does not have to worry about his children taking care of him and is glad that they can pursue their education.
--- Rajagopal Chamraj Tea Estate was established by an English businessman named Robert Stanes in 1922 and is located in the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu, South India. It is one of a group of four neighboring tea estates owned by United Nilgiri Tea Estates (UNTE), the others being Allada Valley, Devabetta and Korakundah. The estates are set among rolling hills covered in dense vegetation and natural forest interspersed with small villages. At elevations above 6,500 feet, the production of high quality black, green and oolong orthodox teas is possible. At 8,000 feet Korakundah is the highest tea estate in India and is awaiting accreditation from the Guinness Book of Records as the highest in the world.
The living and working conditions of the laborers on remote tea plantations, such as Chamraj, were notoriously poor in its early days. In 1951, the Plantation Labour Act was one of the first initiatives to make estate companies responsible for the welfare of their workforce including the provision of housing, health care and education. Chamraj Estate changed hands in 1960 when the current owners, the Amalgamation Group, bought all businesses belonging to UNTE from the Stanes family. Since then, Amalgamation has consistently invested in Chamraj and its laborers giving it a premier name in the industry.
Today, the factory at Chamraj is the largest in the Nilgiris and has the capacity to process up to 40,000 kilograms of tea every day for six days a week during peak production. While the trend of the domestic market was to switch to low quality tea due to surplus and drought, Chamraj maintained its high quality by reducing labor costs and upgrading its equipment.
Chamraj has positioned itself as a manufacturer of ethical tea, gaining Fair Trade, Rain Forest Alliance, Kosher certification and is working on full organic certification. Nearly 10 percent of its sales are now Fair Trade, destined for the UK, Japan, Germany and the US. Chamraj hopes to eventually sell all of its teas as Fair Trade Certified.
Fair Trade has improved the working and living conditions of laborers who come from all over the region to work at Chamraj. Educational funds have been a very important initiative for the development of the region. Fair Trade helps fund the higher education of laborers’ children and exposes them to new career opportunities while enabling them to support their retired parents. Retired workers are replaced by new migrant workers from the area, allowing other children the same access to education. This cycle has provided new opportunities for other poor families and children in the area. Projects like these are proposed and managed by a Joint Body or elected members, most of whom are women.
The Fair Trade premium has enabled Chamraj Tea Estate to establish a number of social and productive programs.
Retirement Pension
This Pension Scheme has been established nearly 12 years ago and is extremely popular with the workers. Because children move out of the region to pursue their education, they are no longer able to care for their parents in the traditional way. Workers receive this pension when they retire which allows them to be supported financially through their old age. So far, 164 workers benefit from these pensions.
School Fees and Scholarships
The premium has provided craft equipment and abacuses to the estate primary school as well as extending the playground for the 280 children who attend. Tea estates must by law provide primary education in Tamil, but Chamraj also provides secondary education in both Tamil and English up to age 18 to prepare students for college and university. The Fair Trade premium also goes toward funding a portion of teacher salaries. English education is normally very expensive but parents here only have to pay a small fee for their children, most of whom are the first generation in their family to have access to this kind of education.
School Infrastructure and Assets
The estate has also helped construct a Fair Trade-funded computer lab for secondary students, as well as laboratory facilities for biology, physics and chemistry students. The premium has also allowed the purchase of school buses so that the students that live far away can get to school. In addition, some fees have been allocated to pay for a hostel for students who live even farther.
Household and Community Appliances
Pressure cookers, gas stoves and gas bottles have been provided, ending the need to spend hours collecting firewood from the forest, along with satellite television connections and furniture for the community hall. |
Fair Trade Tea 
