Human rights violation in the tea industry

As you may know, tea is the most famous and consumed beverage second to water. The demand of all kinds of tea increases. In order to answer this question, extra production has to be done. This does not always work out as it should. It is estimated that around 46 million people worldwide are slaves. This is especially in the production of products such as coffee, sugar, cacao, but tea plantations are also often linked to slavery.
Fairtrade is now a well-known concept that does a lot about the human rights. Human rights are central to Fairtrade’s mission. These rights apply to everyone, wherever you come from and whoever you are. Everyone is entitled to these rights. You can think of the right to life, shelter, no discrimination, freedom of expression, clean drinking water, health and a reasonable standard of life. Employer law also belong to these human rights, for example the right to a living wage.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948. Human rights sometimes seem self-evident. The harsh reality is unfortunately somewhat different and shows that for many people these do not apply.

In 2015, 736 million people (!) were living below the poverty line of $1,90 a day, which is equivalent to €1,63. More than 820 million people are starving every day. Partly because of this poignant data, the SDGs were adopted in the same year. These are the Sustainable Development Goals and form a sustainable agenda and ambition. An agenda for a world without extreme poverty, without hunger and with equal opportunities for everyone. In other words, a world in which human right apply to everyone.
One of the main causes of human right violations, such as child labor or slaverly, is poverty. As long as farmers and workers are unable to earn a living wage and are exploited, these rights will therefore always be under pressure.

The well-known Assam and Darjeeling regions of India produce at least 70 percent of the Indian tea. Unfortunately, they also have one of the highest poverty rates among tea workers. Human rights violations in the Indian tea industry still persist to this day. The roots of poverty and rights violations of the Indian tea workers come from the colonial history in the country. During the British colonization of India, the British officially introduces tea cultivation to the country. During this time the native Adivasi worked on the plantations.

Besides, the BBC saw children working as tea workers in 2016. Under UN international law, children under 15 are not allowed to work. Due to poor living conditions, malnutrition and poor sanitation to which these children are exposed on a daily basis, these children are constantly at risk of fatal diseases. Fortunately, there are many who are working to combat and improve human rights violations in the Indian tea industry.

Our teas are organic and Fairtrade and grown, processed and packaged in accordance with Fairtrade and FLOCERT. FLOCERT is the global umbrella organisation that monitors the Fairtrade process on the purchasing side. Another reason that we also pay attention to human rights on the tea plantations is the personal contact that exists. We know the people behind the factory personally and we visit them regularly. This way we know that the circumstances also meet our own expectations and norms and values, and not just the wishes of a controlling organisation. We put a lot of energy into maintaining the personal contacts.