"As the time for plucking commences, labourers, especially women, are exposed to extreme weather events and snake bites, which increase their vulnerability to disease. Other common conditions such as diarrhoea, skin rashes, fever and malaria, tend to spike during the summer and monsoon seasons, health workers said.
Apart from this, locals say, extreme erratic weather events, such as intense rainfall, thunderstorms and hail storms, such as the one just before this reporter visited Cachar, also impact workers’ health as they have to work in waterlogged plantations.
The paucity of clean water sources is yet another issue. Many of the garden population drink water from unprotected ponds and water bodies that they also use for cleaning utensils and other day-to-day activities, leading to stomach pain, skin disease, etc. The tea garden hospital management committee's tasks include preventing and controlling malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhoea and Japanese encephalitis."
