Ethnicity, culture and human development of Bangladesh’s tea workers

ABSTRACT

This study sets out to investigate the human development situation of ethnic tea workers in Bangladesh against the underpinnings of human development theories by employing a qualitative research approach. We collected data for this study from people of diverse ethnic backgrounds and identities through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and direct observation. The study finds that human development of ethnic tea workers is extremely constrained by the lack of their freedom and adequate income, which is systematically created by the tea planters to serve their business interests. Tea workers’ social isolation from the mainstream Bangladeshi society, coupled with their traditional social life and poor socioeconomic conditions, also manufactured by the regulatory systems, remains the significant marker for the deterrent of their human development. Different traditional beliefs, rituals and practices of these ethic communities are also spotted as contributing factors for their poor human development situation, forcing them to sustain the legacy of working-class status of their predecessors and wind up in the tea plantations for generations.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnic tea workers
• poverty
• sociocultural and religious practices
• human development
• Bangladesh

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and useful comments and suggestions on this manuscript. The authors also thank the SUST Research Center, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh for funding this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by SUST Research Center, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh [Grant Number: SS/2021/2/28].

Notes on contributors

Md Nazrul Islam

Md Nazrul Islam is Professor of Political Studies at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh. He received PhD in Sociology at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His works appeared in various international peer-reviewed journals including Labor History, Children’s Geographies, International Area Studies Review, Bandung: Journal of the Global South, Religions, Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, Social Sciences, Politics, Religion & Ideology, Development in Practice, and International Journal of Environmental Studies. He recently published a book (co-authored) entitled Islam and Democracy in South Asia: The Case of Bangladesh (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). Dr. Islam’s research interests include religion, politics and governance; democracy and human rights; religion, environment and development; poor and marginalized communities, and Bangladesh studies.

Md Al-Amin

Md Al-Amin is Professor of Sociology at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet-3114, Bangladesh. He received PhD at the University of Milan, Italy. He authored a number of articles which were published in various peer-reviewed journals, such as Children’s Geographies, Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, The Hong Kong Journal of Social Work, Asian Affairs, Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies, Asian Journal of Women’s Studies, Labor History, Development in Practice, and International Journal of Environmental Studies. His research interests include gender and development, NGOs interventions of microcredit, neoliberalism, labor studies and development.