Pradhan Mantri Cha Shramik Protsahan Yojana (2024): Assessing a Targeted Welfare Scheme for India’s Tea Garden Workers
India's tea industry occupies a distinctive place in the country's rural economy. It is the world's largest producer and consumer of black tea, and in 2024 it ranked as the third-largest tea exporter globally, with exports touching ₹7,817.58 crore in FY 2024-25 (Press Information Bureau [PIB], 2026). Yet the sector's economic significance sits alongside a long-standing social burden: tea is a highly labour-intensive plantation crop, employing 11.56 lakh workers in the organised sector alone, with women comprising nearly 58 per cent of this workforce (PIB, 2026). Worker welfare in tea gardens — housing, healthcare, education and social security — has historically been the statutory responsibility of estate managements under the Plantation Labour Act, 1951, with implementation resting largely with state governments.
