Indian workers dying on World Bank-backed tea plantations, say campaigners

CHENNAI, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – At least six workers have died in the last two years on Indian tea plantations that are partly financed by the World Bank, charities said on Friday in an official complaint.

Exploitation and poor working conditions persist after being exposed by a 2016 investigation by the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO), an accountability mechanism of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), the charities said.

The IFC and Tata Global Beverages in 2009 set up Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (APPL), which is partly owned by workers and was intended to end labor abuses on plantations previously run by Tata in the northeastern state of Assam.

“Nine years on, we hear of tea workers who have died following work-related accidents, prolonged exposure to hazardous pesticides and lack of adequate medical care,” said Wilfred Topno of People’s Action for Development.

After the 2016 investigation, the IFC said it was working with APPL to improve conditions. But in their complaint to the CAO, the advocacy groups said not enough has been done.

“The World Bank has utterly failed to exercise its leverage to address the CAO’s damning findings,” said Anirudha Nagar, of the Accountability Counsel…

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Read more about Accountability Counsel’s case in Assam, India here.