The details of total number of permanent /temporary workers state-wise as per the Baseline Survey conducted by the Tea Board in 2015 for the organised sector in the country is given in the following table:

Serial Number	State	Permanent	Temporary	Total
1	Assam	4,00,352	2,84,302	6,84,654
2	West Bengal	2,41,144	96,172	3,37,316
3	Tripura	7,953	5,304	13,257
4	Arunachal Pradesh	141	487	628
5	Sikkim	397	0	397
6	Meghalaya	19	125	144
7	Bihar	20	40	60
8	Himachal Pradesh	55	508	563
9	Mizoram	15	50	65
10	Uttarakhand	668	948	1,616
11	Tamil Nadu	39,311	10,099	49,410
12	Kerala	33,534	7,239	40,773
13	Karnataka	2,638	421	3,059
	All-India	7,26,247	4,05,695	11,31,942

(Source: Tea Board)

At present, 11 tea gardens are closed in the country. The main reasons for closure of these gardens are attributed to poor yield of the estates, ageing bush profile and high vacancy percentage in tea area, negligible uprooting/replanting of age-old tea bushes for years, poor garden management practices, falling quality and price realisations, overall lack of development perspective, highly debt-oriented funding strategy and ownership disputes.

The details indicating state-wise closed tea estates (TEs) and number of workers affected are given below:

Serial Number	Name of the Tea Estate	State/UT	Number of Workers affected
			Permanent	Temporary
1	Dheklapara T E	West Bengal	604	200 (approximately)
2	Bundapani T E	West Bengal	1,215	68
3	Dharanipur T E	West Bengal	357	450 (approximately)
4	Redbank T E	West Bengal	888	700 (approximately)
5	Surendranagar T E	West Bengal	301	150 (approximately)
6	Madhu T E	West Bengal	947	-
7.	Panighata	West Bengal	787	-
8	Manabarrie	West Bengal	452	101
9	Peermade Tea Co Ltd - Peermade and Lonetree T E	Kerala	220	-
10	MMJ Plantations - Kottamala and Bonami T E	Kerala	375	-
11	Bonaccord	Kerala	220	-
	Total		6,366	1,669

(Source: Tea Board)

The following steps have been taken by the Government for the revival of the closed tea estates in the country:

(i) The Dheklapara Tea Estate was officially liquidated by the Calcutta High Court. The garden was put up for e-auction by the Calcutta High Court (official liquidator) in 2012, but no prospective buyer was available. The West Bengal has cancelled the land lease in respect of Bundapani, Redbank, Dharanipur, Surendranagar and Madhu tea estates and taken possession of the land to find out new entrepreneurs.

(ii) A committee headed by the District Magistrates (DMs) in North Bengal districts regularly monitors the welfare measures and different schemes introduced by the state government in the tea gardens.

(iii) The government of Kerala has constituted Plantation Workers’ Relief Fund in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Palakkad, Wayanad and Idukki. The fund is utilised for the relief activities such as nutritious food, study materials, notebooks, school bags and umbrellas to the children of workers in the closed gardens of the state. Medical camps are being organised and financial assistance extended for the medical treatment of deadly diseases to the labourers.

The Tea Board under the Tea Development and Promotion Scheme is extending financial assistance to the small growers for uprooting and replanting, rejuvenation, pruning, irrigation, assistance to self-help groups (SHGs), field mechanisation, assistance to farmers’ producers’ organisations (FPOs), annual awards for SHGs and FPOs, setting up of new factories by FPOs, setting up mini factories, workshop/training, development and promotion of organic farming and organic conversion.