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By B. Sivaram
We now turn to the factors, other than wage structure or incentive schemes, which have a bearing on worker productivity. These factors stem essentially from the dynamics of social and community behaviour and the most pertinent ones are described below.
While tea industry management readily perceives a direct linkage between the nutrition and productivity of tea bushes, they exhibit a relative lack of appreciation of the input-output relationship in respect of the industry's major asset -- labour. Even from the standpoint of purely commercial considerations, therefore, there is a convergence between the health and welfare of workers and the interests of management. Better health leads to higher labour productivity, which in turn justifies viewing health and welfare outlays as investment rather than consumption expenditure. Enhancing the health and welfare of workers calls for a good deal of coordination between the operational and welfare departments, besides close interaction with the trade unions. It also follows that, in order to maintain the major plantation asset at an optimum productivity level, the factors influencing it, such as the workers' life at home, their life in the community and their relationships at the workplace must be kept in good order.
In the present situation throughout South Asia, the wage structure and incentive schemes may have become an inflexible element, particularly in view of their applicability across the board for all workers within a given region or locality. It is, therefore, possible that the workers -- especially, the women pluckers -- may have calculated that extra work at the incentive rate is not worth the effort. This is all the more likely if the valuation women workers place on domestic chores or on leisure time at the end of the day is greater than the income derived from additional plucking. In that regard, it may be that motivational, rather than monetary factors would help to augment productivity, particularly among the women pluckers.
In most cases, plantation managements are already incurring welfare expenditure for labour, although in varying degrees. If, through operational research and other means, such amounts are better spent and made more cost-effective, there will be both a quantitative and qualitative improvement in the returns on these investments and hence an augmentation in worker productivity. For this to happen, it is necessary to integrate welfare into the normal functioning of the estate.
In the male-dominated society of the South Asian region, the tea industry presents a refreshing contrast, being almost wholly devoid of sexual discrimination. In fact, the greater part of production activity on tea plantations centres around women workers who not only share a separate labour identity but also form the key element in the family basis of estate employment. Macro-level data from Assam in North India, for instance, suggest that the division of labour and cooperation between men and women, as well as the care of children are based on reciprocal relationships rather than on domination and exploitation. This is markedly different from the situation that exists in most rural households where, despite all the hard work put in by the womenfolk, they do not get paid for their labour. The independent economic status accorded to women tea workers and the nearly equal terms under which they operate should form the platform from which management can embark on a forward-looking personnel policy that will bring out the best in the women workers. In fact, the industry's major asset is not labour as such, but female labour, It is therefore important for management to take into account the socio-economic needs of women tea workers.
It has been observed that two categories of illnesses -- respiratory and water borne -- account for 60-70 per cent of the diseases prevalent among tea workers in the sub-continent. These diseases are also the major contributors to absenteeism, sickness benefit costs and expenditure on drugs on estates. By and large, these illnesses are controllable through ensuring a protected water supply, proper disposal of human and animal waste, better personal hygiene and improved living conditions. By placing the emphasis on a preventive rather than a curative approach, not only will there be a reduction in costs to management but, more importantly, there will be a lower incidence of illness, with its attendant positive impact on worker productivity. Anaemia is also a problem, with a reported incidence among plantation workers of between 30 and 50 per cent, taking 11 grams per cent for women and 12 for men as the standard haemoglobin count. The adverse effect that anaemia has on output has been documented, for instance, in a study of Indonesian rubber tappers, which showed that the productivity of non-anaemic workers was 20 per cent higher than their anaemic counterparts. By identifying and treating anaemia, productivity can be increased. This has been demonstrated by a group of tea estates in the sub-continent, where increased productivity was achieved by giving a course of 100 iron tablets to a cross-section of 250 pluckers.
A pilot study undertaken in South India in 1990 highlighted the impact of socio-economic and health factors on the performance of women tea workers. The exercise involved 592 pluckers, equally distributed among good, average and poor performers, and threw light on some new features, confirmed some well-known concepts and exploded some myths. It proved beyond doubt that, within reasonable limits, age and experience have a direct bearing on plucker productivity. For instance, good pluckers have over 20 years of experience and, in that respect, their age is seen as a helpful attribute. While good eyesight and dextrous fingers are important, the study pointed to the need for training as an additional means of improving productivity. Similarly, taller women make good pluckers because they can reach the whole bush and can generally carry more. This suggests a possible reallocation of field work to make the best use of shorter less robust workers. The findings do not, in any way, reflect the popular myth that sterilization adversely affects productivity. In fact, a high proportion of good pluckers had undergone sterilization after the birth of two or three children. The domestic demands on women workers with children below six years of age have been somewhat detrimental to their productivity. This trend is, however, transitional because once the children are in school education, the mothers' plucking productivity increases. This finding highlights the need for proper crèches and better estate school facilities. The study also indicated that poor pluckers habitually take more sick leave and unauthorized leave than good pluckers. It is not possible to draw any reliable conclusion from the study concerning the correlation between productivity and factors such as indebtedness and haemoglobin levels. The study, however, recommended an in-depth analysis of the latter.
The picture that emerged from the study was that a good plucker was one who not only responds favourably to an incentive wage package but also maintains good health, opts for a smaller family, gives due weight to children's education and avoids needless absenteeism. Because of the relevance of this study for the tea sector in the South Asian region and for the wider agrarian and plantation community in developing countries, its findings are given in greater detail below.
Field experience. Among the poorer pluckers, the study showed that 70 per cent had experience of 20 years or less. Productivity rose comparatively slowly with experience, implying that the plucker learns largely by trial and error, taking her cue from the woman next to her or following the instructions of her supervisor -- almost certainly male -- whenever he finds the time to attend to her. Training programmes for new recruits on plucking methods may, therefore, shorten this learning process and improve performance. Apart from practical field-level training, visual aids may need to be used to explain the intricacies of selective plucking, removal of banjis in time, leaving the side branches, not stripping the bush, and so on. The study also revealed that, while plucking performance improves with experience, there is a dip in productivity in the group with 26 to 30 years of experience. This happens to be the 45 to 49 year age group for women. Whether the dip in productivity was related to the onset of menopause could not be investigated, but it was seen that their plucking performance improved after this age.
Age. Below the age of 30 years, 50 per cent of the women fell into the category of poor pluckers as against 20 per cent in the category of good pluckers. Apart from a lack of experience, it is possible that most of the women in the younger age groups have yet to complete their families and therefore have concerns associated with child-bearing and rearing. It was also seen that performance -- even of poor workers -- improved with age until the 45 to 49 year age group when, as mentioned above, it fell, picking up in the 50 to 54 year age group, only to decline again after 55 years of age. It must be stressed that plucking is an exacting operation in which the eyes, brain and fingers have to work in unison to select and harvest the pluckable leaf from leaves at different stages of maturity. While experience is certainly an important factor in perfecting this technique, it is equally true that, after a certain age, the dexterity of the fingers and the alertness of the mind decline as part of the normal human ageing process.
Height. Judging from the results of the survey, 47 per cent of the women pluckers have a height of below 150 cm (5 ft), and 50 per cent of them fall into the 145 to 154 cm group. A comparison of the heights of the three categories of pluckers -- good, average and poor -- clearly indicated a positive linear correlation between height and productivity. The height of the worker in relation to that of the tea bush determines whether she is able to harvest the leaf with ease or whether plucking entails physical discomfort. Considering that women in the South Asian region tend to be short, the height factor needs to be accorded due attention. For instance, consideration could be given to deploying short workers in younger fields, or implementing shorter pruning cycles in areas where the growth of the bush is faster. Apart from genetic factors, height carries implications of the sufficiency or otherwise of nutritional inputs during the growing years. In this context, the feeding programmes in the crèches are of particular relevance, assuming, of course, that the children concerned will form the future workforce of the plantation.
Weight. It was observed that 66 per cent of the women weighed less than 45 kg. By and large, weight can be taken as an indicator of health and nutrition, pertaining to a more recent period, than height. According to the results of the study, the proportion of good pluckers increased with the weight up to the 50-54 kg range, after which it dropped. This is in keeping with the finding of nutrition specialists with regard to other agricultural and industrial activities, that work performance improves with increasing weight up to a certain level; if workers are obese, their capacity to perform declines. In the tea industry, the survey noted that only 4 per cent of the pluckers were over 55 kg in weight.
Leave pattern. As expected, the study found significant differences among workers in respect of the three types of leave covered -- sick, maternity and unauthorized. It was observed that the average and poor workers had taken more sick leave than good pluckers. It was evident that, while the general health of the worker did have an effect on individual productivity and performance, a greater degree of control by the management would ensure that only genuinely ill workers were granted sick leave. With regard to maternity leave, the study showed that, of the 36 workers who availed themselves of this benefit, only three were good pluckers, six were average and 27 were poor pluckers. Of course, this finding must be viewed in a wider context; a greater proportion of the poor pluckers were in the younger and hence reproductive age group, making it necessary for them to attend clinics more often for reasons related to pregnancy and childbirth. These findings are in keeping with those of an earlier study on about 40 tea estates in the Dooars district of Assam in North India, which also established that the productivity of a woman plucker was measurably lower during the six weeks before and six weeks after the maternity leave. A predictable trend was also evident with respect to unauthorized leave. According to the study, only 11 per cent of the good pluckers took unauthorized leave beyond 50 days, as against 15 per cent of average and 37 per cent of poor pluckers.
Young children. It was seen that 48 per cent of the women surveyed had children below 6 years of age. Clearly, having small children adversely affects the work productivity of the mother, especially when the children are in the 0-3 year age group. As noted above, the majority of good pluckers belong to the older and more experienced age group, by which time their children are grown up.
Sterilization. Family planning programmes frequently cover tea estates, and the survey noted that 53 per cent of the couples had accepted sterilization, 82 per cent of the interventions being tubectomies. Significantly, the results demolished the widely held view that sterilization reduces the woman's work capacity. As it turned out, of the unsterilized women, only 31 per cent were good pluckers, whereas 32 per cent were average pluckers and 37 per cent poor pluckers. Even in respect of women whose husbands had undergone vasectomy, 50 per cent were good, 29 per cent average and 21 per cent poor performers.
Other parameters. The survey also tried to assess other parameters, such as the marital status, literacy, and family problems, but did not find any statistically significant correlation between these factors and plucking productivity. More studies are needed to throw light on the socio-economic factors affecting worker productivity, with a view to initiating appropriate action to improve worker productivity.
Almost coinciding with the South Indian survey was a research study carried out in Sri Lanka in 1989 on factors affecting the health status of women tea workers. The study covered 150 women workers randomly selected from six estates in the Nuwara Eliya District. All the workers were pluckers. The findings point to the occupational hazards and the long working hours, and their effects on the workers' health and productivity. Health problems can be both occupational and non-occupational, and their interrelationship has to be recognized. For the purposes of this paper, only the recommendations of the study which have a direct bearing on worker productivity are noted below.
Carrying the tea basket over the head affects the neck and degenerative changes are seen in the cervical spine. The problem should be overcome by devising a comfortable method for carrying the green leaf without causing strain to the head and neck. A basket strapped to the back, similar to a knapsack, would be an alternative.
Continuous plucking results in painful abrasions to the hands. Wearing a protective glove may not be a practical way to prevent it because, apart from being uncomfortable during hot and humid weather, the cost involved would be substantial. A feasible alternative would be to develop an inexpensive protective material to cover the thumb and index finger separately. Toes also require protection, but the solution is complicated because workers have to walk and climb long distances. A type of footwear made of durable material should be developed, which is both comfortable and suitable for slippery surfaces and steep terrain.
The study identified anaemia as a major factor in ill-health, maternal death and poor productivity. Some suggestions for overcoming anaemia are: health education on the value of good hygienic practices, proper nutrition and sanitation; provision of clean toilets; detection and treatment of helminthiasis; and detection and correction of iron deficiency by providing iron supplements.
The general perception has been that tea production is a large-scale enterprise. That situation still obtains in Bangladesh and North India and to a lesser extent in South India but not in Sri Lanka, as may be seen from table 9.
Table 9. Tea smallholdings in South Asia
| Country | Units (No.) | Processing units (No.) | Production (million kg) | Share in production (%) | ||||
| Bangladesh | Nil | Nil | Nil | Nil | ||||
| India | ||||||||
| North | n.a. | 14 | 2 | 0.4 | ||||
| South | 8 000 | 132 | 38 | 21 | ||||
| Sri Lanka | 230 000 | 260 | 130 | 54 | ||||
| South Asia | 406 | 170 | 16 | |||||
| Source: Tea Boards of India and Sri Lanka. | ||||||||
The estate orientation of the tea industry stems from two premises both of which are now being questioned. The first is that since tea production requires the proximity of processing facilities, it is best grown on plantations. This view has been eroded by estate factories increasingly going in for green leaf purchase, the setting up over the years of the privately managed bought-leaf factories, and the emergence of government-sponsored cooperative factories. In the Sri Lankan estate sector, for instance, profit seldom accrues from the leaf grown in the plantation but from the leaf purchased from smallholders. The second feature is historical; since labour was cheap and freely available, companies found it easy to open up large tea plantations. As noted above, however, a combination of trade union influence and government-instituted wages and welfare benefits has put an end to the low labour costs that used to characterized the tea economy.
Basically, there are three smallholding subsectors in tea in South Asia. The first centres on highly productive, mainly clonal, tea with yields around 2,000 kg per hectare. For these smallholdings, tea is invariably the sole or predominant crop and the use of hired labour is high, their comparative advantage being having to pay only the minimum wage, which is about 10 per cent lower than the fair wage applicable to the estate sector. These units are found in the southern belt of Sri Lanka. The second category comprises smallholdings with very low productivity -- less than 500 kg per hectare. Abandoned estates, large-scale vacancies, neglected fields and mixed cropping characterize this subsector. These smallholdings are usually found in the mid-country of Sri Lanka. The third category comprises units with productivity somewhere between the first two categories. Although there is an element of mixed farming, a good deal of attention is paid to husbandry and tea remains the primary source of family income. Smallholdings in India, especially in the south, and in the up-country of Sri Lanka come within this category. The second and third categories of tea growers generally use their own (probably unpaid) family labour. In economic terms, however, such labour has an opportunity cost. Their reliance on hired workers is minimal. Some of these smallholders even hire themselves out to the estate sector as wage labour when their units are unable to make both ends meet.
That tea technology is unaffected by size of enterprise is evident from the fact that the average field productivity of smallholdings in Sri Lanka is higher than that in the estate sector. The situation at present in Sri Lanka is that smallholders occupying only 45 per cent of the total area account for 54 per cent of national tea production. Their share is growing, influenced no doubt to a large extent by the assured Gulf market which absorbs this relatively low cost produce. Although the role of smallholders is not so evident elsewhere in South Asia, a global comparison would reveal the key position that small tea farms have always held in China and their emergence in the not-too-distant future as the backbone of the tea industry in Kenya.
The smallholder only grows whereas the estate sector grows and manufactures. In other words, the main difference between the two is that the former ends up with a raw material or an intermediate product (green leaf) while the latter's activity culminates in an end product (made tea) that is ready for sale as a beverage for human consumption. The gains from productivity and profitability which arise in processing for the market are not always passed on to the smallholder. In an effort to ensure that smallholders share these gains, the Sri Lankan Government operates a scheme which makes it obligatory for the processing factory to pay the smallholder for the green leaf supplied at a price not less than that calculated according to the following formula: Factory price of made tea for the previous month, less 32 per cent of factory price, times 4.5 (to convert to green leaf), less SLRs 0.35 per kg green leaf (average transport costs). Using an auction average of, say, 60 Sri Lankan rupees per kg, the price to the smallholder is calculated as follows:
Rs 60 _ (Rs 60 _ 0.32) = Rs 40.80/4.5 = Rs 9.07 -- Rs 0.35 = Rs 8.72 per kg green leaf
The formula works both ways. On one hand, it serves as a protection against exploitation by the processing factories; on the other, the champions of deregulation do not favour its continuance on the ground that it stands in the way of the smallholders improving their leaf quality standards. Viewed in the wider context of an uncertain and vulnerable tea market, however, it would appear that the system has merit.
It is becoming increasingly evident that tea growing lends itself ideally to smallholder cultivation. Unlike seasonal or fruit crops, tea generates year-round income to the farmer. The higher land and labour productivity ensure a production cost that is lower than in the estate sector. In social terms, the development of smallholdings offers more employment opportunities to rural women, thereby enhancing the living conditions of families. Given an efficient agricultural extension system and proper processing facilities in close proximity, increased small-grower participation in the tea industry could serve as an effective strategy for raising incomes and providing an impetus to the farming community in developing countries.
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Ceylon Labour Foundation: Health status of women plantation workers in Sri Lanka (1990).
FAO: Documents for the 11th Session of the Intergovernmental Group on Tea (Rome, 1995).
Government of Sri Lanka: Tea Master Plan (1980).
ILO: Documents for the Tenth Session of the Committee on Work on Plantations (Geneva, 1994).
International Tea Committee: Annual Bulletin of Statistics.
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Nair, S.U.: Review of United Planters' Association of Southern India study on socio-economic affecting productivity among tea pluckers (1990).
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Sivaram, B.: A handbook on family health and welfare in plantations (ILO, Geneva, 1992).
de Silva, R.L.: Statistical references: Productivity improvement of tea plantations in Sri Lanka (World Bank, 1994).
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