Ethnic women in the supply chain of the tea industry in India and Thailand

Paper Abstract: Tea is one of India’s important export products which is about 3.5 million workers in the tea industry. Assam state occupies the largest area of tea plantations in India, and more than half of India’s tea is from Assam. Women become the image of the tea industry as the important workers in the tea garden with “soft hands and nimble fingers” that generate more productivity for the tea industry. However, many women struggle for better livelihoods due to the low wages and less social welfare. In Thailand, Chiang Rai occupies the largest area of tea plantations whereas Assam tea varieties exist generally in the forest. In the past, local people brought tea leaves as food recipes. Nowadays, the tea plantation areas are expanded to serve modern ways of domestic consumption and export premium tea leaves to international markets. Mostly, the tea plucking workers are women who attempt to gain additional income to support their family apart from their housework. This research aims to explore the relations of ethnic women workers in the tea supply chain, the causes of structural exploitation, and the possibility of lifting their livelihoods and the tea production processes. Qualitative data collection is applied by interviewing women workers and tea managers in Assam, India, and Chiang Rai, Thailand. Primary findings are involved with the different forms of the supply chains between Assam’s tea enterprises and Chiang Rai’s tea enterprises that bring into the different forms of exploitation and adaptation of ethnic women in the tea industry.