Creating a Better Future for Tea Communities

After reading the Ethical Tea Partnership’s (ETA) paper over gender violence in the tea industry, I felt drawn to give my reaction to the paper and an overview for anyone interested but not wanting to spend the time readying the whole paper.

Firstly is the problem itself and why it’s happening. The major tea communities such as Assam and Darjeeling are culturally not accepting of gender equality and it’s been even normalized to harass or sexually assault women who are working in the tea industry. This is something I’ve started to learn more about and it’s extremely sad. Tea wouldn’t be where it is in the world as the 2nd most popular drink, behind water, if it wasn’t for these women that are in the fields of tea estates. However, where these estates are, it’s culturally unacceptable for women to speak up when they are being harassed or discriminated against.

Tea estates are also miles long and miles away from the nearest developed cities. This can leave women working in the fields completely isolated and vulnerable to harassment with no repercussions unless the woman was to speak up. Even in that case, she would be alone in speaking out about the issue with other women feeling afraid to go against the cultural norms of the tea industry.

Any problem that is culturally embedded is immensely difficult to tackle. Many who see this issue look at it and think “well what can I do? I’m just one person against a whole system”. It really takes many people over years and even generations to really start resolving issues like this, but we have to start somewhere. If everyone thought that their voice didn’t matter, there would be no chance of a change. The tea industry is an amazing place with many amazing people. We’re lucky to have tea companies and organizations like Ethical Tea Partnership to lead the way in change.

Now how in the world do we do anything about changing this issue?

For Ethical Tea Partnership and others that are tackling this issue head on, they are going to these tea communities and speaking with the women and men to get them to understand the issue and think differently about it. They are working with the estates leadership to get involved in implementing policies and a safe space for women to speak up when harassment happens. Like I mentioned before, this isn’t going to be done in a day, this will be a long but worth while effort to bring a safe space to women in the industry.

For us that are interested in helping but aren’t involved with organizations like Ethical Tea Partnership, my biggest advice in contributing is to learn, spread awareness, and, if you can, donate to a trusted organization taking on the issue. Knowledge about an issue is more valuable than one might think. If no one knew about the issue, it’s really never going to be fixed and may be thrown aside.

Like I mentioned before, the tea industry really is an amazing place. It’s full of people from many different backgrounds and cultures who come together over a common leaf. There are so many passionate people all over the world who put their lives into their tea leaves and care so much about the future of the industry. Tea has been a big part of human culture for thousands of years, we have the responsibility to keep it going for thousands more.