Lalita is a tea picker who works on a tea garden in Assam, in north-east India, where she lives with her husband and two children. Every day, she picks up to 30kg of leaf from the tea bushes. The leaves are then weighed, collected and brought to the factory for processing.
The tea garden provides Lalita and her family with housing. Adequate living quarters, toilets and drinking water facilities are part of the legal benefits that must be provided to workers in Indian tea gardens. However, due to rising populations on tea estates – in particular, non workers – the industry has not been able to provide satisfactory benefits for everyone. Like many others, Lalita’s family did not have a proper latrine. They had to use a temporary pit toilet made of bamboo, which was not only unhygienic but also offered little privacy, safety and dignity.
Twinings works with producers and partner organisations to accelerate the provision of these basic facilities, by building toilets, improving access to clean water and raising awareness on good hygiene practices on Indian tea gardens.