Rubber: A death sentence to natural forests
Rubber, be it in the CHT, Madhupur or in the tea gardens, may bring some economic benefits to the state and private entrepreneurs, but in general it has not been beneficial to the people who once used these lands.
1m ago
Owners win, workers lose
It is a shame that the wage board completely failed in framing and presenting acceptable recommendations on the tea workers’ wage structure.
8m ago
How forestry projects destroy forests
Though eucalyptus was eradicated from the public forest land, social forestry continues at a very high cost to natural ecosystems.
1y ago
Why do women in tea gardens face higher reproductive health risks?
Women in the tea gardens suffer from a host of reproductive and health issues, which remain unaddressed.
1y ago
No justice in paying tea workers’ arrears
The owners’ fickleness about signing of the agreement has come as a big shock to tea garden workers.
1y ago
Expand social protection in the new year
The government has a huge task ahead in terms of making its social security programmes effective.
1y ago
Tea workers’ strike ends. What’s next?
Tea workers may not have had their demands fulfilled, but their united voice brings in a new era of workers' rights.
1y ago
Fairer wages, or more broken promises for tea workers?
In the best interests of the tea sector, tea garden owners and government functionaries should promote true trade unionism.
1y ago
March 31, 2020
Coronavirus threat: Tea workers’ say no to work
The tea workers of Shamshernagar Tea Garden in Kamalganj upazila, Moulvibazar, took matters into their own hands in defiance of the garden management and stopped work from March 27.
March 8, 2019
Among Garo and Khasis, women decide who gets what
Purna Chisik and Satendra Nokrek have four daughters—Francila, Malita, Nomita and Malina—and two sons—Parmel and Sebastin.
January 25, 2019
The story of a floating people
14 Bede families have set up their oval-shaped makeshift tents on private land in Natun Torki, a village in Kalkini Upazila of Madaripur district. A branch of the Arialkha river flows on the west of Natun Torki. The area is well-known in Barishal for Torki Bandar, a narrow but flowing river on the west. The Bede huts are just on the outskirts of the crowded Natun Torki market.
September 2, 2018
The environmental sacrifice
We stand in the middle of Rohingya Camp No. 18. It is in the southwest of Kutupalong Rohingya camp cluster in Ukhia upazila of Cox's Bazar district. We are stunned.
June 30, 2018
Elections in tea gardens and the larger issues of tea workers
Election of Bangladesh Cha Sramik Union (BCSU) on June 24 was a joyous occasion for tea workers. BCSU happens to be the largest trade union in Bangladesh. And it is the only union for the 97,646 voters who are all registered workers in 161 tea gardens in Sylhet, Maulvibazar, Habiganj, Chattogram and Rangamati Hill District. The recent election was the third time since 1948 that the impoverished tea workers had voted for their leaders.
June 8, 2018
IN AGONY
Sicilia Snal, aged 25 in 2006, was shot when she went to collect firewood in the forest near her village. Sicilia is a Garo woman of Uttar Rasulpur, in Madhupur sal forest area. It was early in the morning of August 21, 2006, that Sicilia went to collect firewood with a few other Garo women. On their way back, they put down their loads to take rest for a while. All of a sudden, to their great surprise, the forest guards fired shots from their guns. Sicilia was hit. She fell to the ground, unconscious and bleeding. Terrified all but one woman fled.
May 11, 2018
Dinesh Nokrek - The Last of Sangsarek
Dinesh Nokrek, in his nineties, is a Garo kamal in Dharati village of Madhupur forest in Tangail. In Garo society, kamal signifies a priest in the traditional Garo religion of Sangsarek—a vanishing tradition, as almost all Garo people have by now converted to Christianity. Nokrek, who often likes to announce that he is a hundred years old, is a kabiraj (village doctor) as well.
April 27, 2018
The man with 100 forest cases... and why he claims he is innocent
Hssan Ali appeared at Tangail Forest Court on January 4, 2018 to take bail in a 'forest case' (no. 405) that was filed in 1998 for felling of trees. He had been charged in absentia on December 27, 2017. The court issued a warrant of arrest. On January 4, he secured a bail to stay out of jail.
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