We are a small independent enterprise which co-operates closely with OXFAM and the Fairtrade Foundation, 7th Floor Regent House, 89 Kingsway, London WC2B 6RH, on all matters of social policy. The social development projects which are supported by the payment of our social premium are advised by local NGO`s The tea is blended and packed in Calcutta, providing additional urban employment. Our work is guided by a belief that stable and fair economic relationships are the best possible way to promote development for both producer and consumer.
The Bijanbari region in Darjeeling is a tea producing area with over 50,000 workers, and a population of nearly 200,000. There was no college in the region, so that when students finished their education in the village and tea garden schools, they had to travel to the city of Darjeeling to pursue further education. As this was too far and expensive for most students, the Organising Committee of Bijanbari Degree College was founded, with our support and in cooperation with other institutions (likewise anthroposophical) . After having sucessfully built the college in Bijanbari, we will help to build a urgently needed school in a village in Darjeeling.
Packaging normally accounts for 80% of the cost of a box of tea bags processed in the country of sale, whereas TopQualiTea is packed entirely in India. By importing pre-packed tea, we are helping Calcutta to develop a modern blending and packaging industry which provides much needed jobs. Charity is undoubtedly important, but providing real jobs is better and regret that most English tea importers continue to package their tea in the UK.
Our teas are purchased directly from Darjeeling (Seeyok and Selimbong T.E.) and Assam Banaspaty T.E.) tea plantations enabling us to understand and help those tea growing regions directly. Education for the fast growing population with an average 70% illiterate is only the most obvious problem of those very remote areas in India. But how can owners live under such circumstances? Not at all: they live far away in cities like Calcutta and have poor social contacts to their properties. Profit making is all they want. Therefore effective social work in the tea growing regions has to be organized in the region itself. Many ideas and initiatives how to develop the tea regions are connected to the local educated people, many of them employee-managers on plantations. They are normally the persons who want to see sustainable development in their native region and not just a system which continues to pull out as much wealth as possible for the few rich like in colonial times. Therefore all projects we support have one simple aim:
Go into the tea growing areas and give as many tea workers as possible help for self-help!
1. The Bijanbari region in Darjeeling is a tea producing area with over 50,000 workers, and a population of nearly 200,000. There is no college in the region, so that when pupils finish their education in the village and tea garden schools, they have to travel to the city of Darjeeling to pursue further education. As this is too far and expensive for most students, the Organising Committee of Bijanbari Degree College was founded. With the support of `fair trade consumers` in the West the first students enrolled in October 1995.
Students like Sujata have now a fair opportunity to become masters of their own lives. She wants to fight overpopulation and the lack of jobs which are together with the absence of education the most serious problems in Bijanbari. `I want to become a teacher myself and give more chidren the oppertunity to learn reading and writing. Without this art you are lost in India of today...`. Overpopulation is now the most serious problem in the `Hills`as the Darjeeling district is called locally (according to the `93 census still an average of 10 children per woman). More jobs are desperatly needed. But the tea industry can`t provide more jobs anymore. What to do? Prem, another student of the new college, has an idea how to solve the problem for himself: `I want to start a travel agency. Tourism could be a small but profitable industry. But first I have to learn languages in College because without speaking English or at least Hindi no tourism is possible`.
2. This year we hope to get the construction for the Chongtong Junior High School on its way together with the Organizing Committee of Chongtong Junior High School. The honorable Secretary Prem Lama hopes that the fair trade movement in Europe will help to to realize his dream of building a school which could provide the much needed education. He is optimistic. For him the not so far away Bijanbari Degree College is a good example how Fair Trade works.
Calcutta morning 8 am: like everyday some of the 12m inhabitants didn`t survive the night. They lost the dailly struggle of getting a job in this metropolis. Even one of Mother Teresa`s hospices stayed unattainable for them. If they are lucky their families will be informed weeks later. The family members who stayed far away from Calcutta don`t know about the dailly fight for work and food. On the contrary many of them want to try their fortunes in the big city too. But often they only exchange rural poverty for a much fierce urban poverty. All they want are jobs. But where are those jobs and what can fair trade consumers really do?
Calcutta morning 8 am: Tuchar leaves his small flat and takes the bus to the fabric where he packs tea. European customers are still very rare. But since last year TopQualiTea packs its tea here. Today he expects a lorry with tea from Selimbong which means a lot of extra work. Highest quality standards are required but the new machinery will help him to match the task. He feels sorry that still 99% of exported teas are packed in Europe. Time to change that. Many new jobs could be created to get at least some people off the streets. For example tea bags: the packaging normally accounts for 80% of the cost of a box of bags. By importing pre-packed tea, you are helping Calcutta to develop a modern blending and packaging industry which provides the much needed jobs. In Calcutta Tushar knows many more people are desperate to earn their living with their own work.
Charity is undoubtedly important, but providing real jobs is better
For picures etc. please contact Joanna Gill, OXFAM Campaign, Tel: 01865.313167; Fax: 01865.313133