Bal Sakha Assam is working since 2010 on holistic child rights issues and women empowerment. The focus area of the organization is the tea garden community. It is believed that the overall development of a child can be possible in their family, in their community. But, it has been observed that children are more vulnerable in a weaker society where the members of the community and family have no time for the children.

Following points are covered under the Program :-

• Intercession with Tea Management through Webinars/ symposiums and interaction meeting in offline/online mode to share ideas
• Inculcating ideas regarding laws, which would be beneficial in resolving conflicts in Tea Industry
• Mending predicament on Gender related issues for holistic development in Tea Industry
• Dissemination of Research papers and other materials to enhance better productivity in Tea Industry
• Indispensable embellishment in the Human Resource Development strategies to pioneer efficient productivity in Tea Industry
• Worker- Management relationship, Human Resource development strategies, Understanding the Gender Concepts and the policies for gender development, Understanding the Changing Paradigm shift in the Managerial practices of the tea gardens. And most importantly the session on the History and Development of Tea Garden Industry in Assam.
• Exposure visit to the Tea Garden, providing an opportunity to the Students of tea management courses/ future managers to understand and explore the practical aspects of the Tea Managements.
• Online/ offline interactive sessions with the experienced senior executives of the Tea Management background.

Expected Outcome:-

• Evolvement of new leadership with a better understanding of the basic needs for the overall development of the tea industry
• Increased capabilities in the identification and analysis of low productivity in the light of management worker relations and improvement thereof.
• Development of a labor-centric framework with the proactive engagement of top tea management officials

The program has been successfully implemented with the students of the institutions. And three such workshops were already planned and conducted at the Centre for Tea and Agro Studies, Dibrugarh University and the Department of Tea Husbandry and Technology, Assam Agricultural University.

• Orientation of women tea garden workers- The meetings were organized with the women tea garden workers on the objectives and benefits of the skill development.

• Enrich Training- The program addresses women empowerment at the bottom of the pyramid so that all women- regardless of their formal education and socioeconomic level can receive holistic and integrated training that increases their ability to strive ahead in life. The training sets the foundation for leadership development by developing critical thinking skills, increasing financial awareness, and honing entrepreneurial competence. 100 temporary women workers got the enrich training.

• Digital Training- The digital training was provided to all beneficiaries of Solar and Beekeeping. The basic objective of the training was to build the capacity of digital technologies for women, i.e., introduction to smartphones, common function, and settings of the phone, networking, uses of the internet, the opening of Google account, WhatsApp, Bhim App, internet banking, etc. After the training, all participants were given a smartphone.

• Solar training- 46 temporary women tea garden workers were selected from both gardens and they completed their training in 2020-21 and learned to make the home light system, make circuits of LED lamps, assembling of LED lamps and wiring, Diva Lantern Circuit, to install REW (Rural electronic workshop) and Laxmi Home Light System and the complete installation wiring. 

• Bee Keeping Training- 46 temporary women tea garden workers got training in bee-keeping and received bee-boxes. 

The positive impact of the women prosper project

The project targets temporary women workers from tea gardens, most of them are illiterate and belong to low-income groups. They learned how to fabricate Solar panels, lights, and photovoltaic circuits. After getting equipped with these capabilities accredited Solar Sakhis return back to lighten their villages and community.
The women sell the solar products to regional communities which come at affordable prices. These products are long-lasting and of high quality. Each woman has been receiving a commission for selling the products and has become financially independent and able to open their own bank accounts.
39 solar torches, 29 solar lanterns, and one home light system were sold by the women of Sessa T.E., and 35 solar torches, 7 solar lanterns, and 1 home light system were sold by the beneficiaries from Hatikuli T.E. The honey was regularly sold by the beneficiaries of Sessa T.E. and Hatikuli T.E.

Overall Development of Tea Industry through Human Resource Development

Bal Sakha Assam is working with the tea industry since 2011. The tea industry occupies a significant position in the history of the development of the Indian economy. It is considered to be the backbone of Assam‟s economy. The tea sector is said to be undergoing a crisis for the last two decades. The socio-economic status of the tea workers is very critical. There is a lack of self-confidence among the tea workers; this is one of the most historical concerns for the industry. The tea industry is a labor-oriented industry. It constitutes the largest single employer in the organized industrial sector in Assam employing around 6.5 lakhs workers daily where women workers constitute more than 50% of the total workforce. Illiteracy, addiction to liquor, neglected childhood, gender discrimination, poor health and nutrition, livelihood resources, etc are some of the issues that have shown the need for the strengthening of the human development measures in the tea gardens. For an industry to get flourished workers/ employees constitute the “Human Resource” component which determines the industry‟s profit and success in every step of its growth. The skillful human resource will enhance the nation‟s productivity and directly contribute to economic growth. In the Tea industry too, its human resource development (HRD) policy and human resource training schemes will catalyst for the growth of the workforce‟s productivity. The program “Human Resource Development in Tea Industry” will discuss the different aspects of this challenge.
Bal Sakha Assam‟s ten long years of intervention in the tea garden areas have felt the need that when the proper investment will be made in the human force then it directly paves the way for the industry growth.

• Plan and Operational Strategy-

1. Introduce Human Resource Development course to Future managers: After in-depth study and focused
   discussions with eminent personalities from tea backgrounds, it came to a formal decision that systematic learning mechanisms be introduced in the tea management institutes for future managers.
2. Intervention with tea management through webinars, symposiums, etc.: The tea estates are basically run and managed by the management of the gardens. Thus, there is a need to boost up the management system of the tea gardens to work for the betterment of the tea garden workers to change the overall scenario with the human approach (living conditions, life, etc.) of the tea garden.

The course was divided into the following sessions-

1. History and development of tea garden/ industry in Assam.
2. Present-day management system.
3. The worker-management relationship.
4. The welfare acts on gender and tea tribe development.
5. Human resource development strategies.
6. Effective leadership skills.
7. Exposure visits of students to a tea estate.

Achievements from the program

• The students who were the would-be managers gained an in-depth insight into the tea community, the socio-economic challenges faced, and the human resource development activities which can lead them to provide better welfare activities as sensitive people of tea management.
• The students understood the concept and techniques of building a healthy relationship between workers and management by giving necessary attention to gender, health, education, and child rights’ which can bring in more workers’ productivity.
• The students had an exposure visit to two large tea estates. These visits provided them with the ground reality check on the living standard and quality of life of the tea community people.
• The successful completion of the HRD course enabled students to get practical knowledge at the garden level and a shared understanding of the adaptability and sustainability aspects of tea productivity.
• The students gained valuable information on various Welfare Acts for Tea Tribe Development which would help them understand the applicability of the acts and their jurisdiction for the well-being of the community.

From 2021 – 22, BSA directly worked on Child protection in three tea estates, i.e., Durgapur T.E. and partly at Manohari T.E. and Madarkhat T.E. in the Dibrugarh district. These centers work to motivate children to go to school, encourage those who have dropped out from education to re-enroll in school, and know about their health and nutrition by regularly sharing, discussing issues, and getting trained in innovative ways like games, focus group discussions, and sharing case stories.

The following activities were conducted under CPC:

• Education– The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected mostly the marginalized sections of the society with school closure (The total lock-down was held from mid-May ‟21 to 19th July 2021 and educational institutes re-open in the month of August 2021) and online education emerging largely as the substitute; children from underprivileged backgrounds have been the worst hit. Online courses were taken during Covid-19 although they could not be effective due to the irregularities in the network and electricity and the non-availability of smart mobile phones to underprivileged families. The majority of the people of Assam are from the lower and lower-middle classes. Due to the unavailability of facilities, some students had to stay away from this system and as a result, there is an increase in dropouts of students from the schools.
  The volunteers of CPCs of different tea estates made regular contact with the
  children and encouraged in-house learning. After the relaxation of the COVID norms
  from August 2021, children were taught regularly by the animators in offline mode.
  Animators also ensured that every child must attend the classes of their respective
  schools.
  Remedial classes were held regularly for at least one hour at night. Class timings
  from 6 pm onwards were taken in Durgapur T.E. These classes were mainly doubt
  clearing sessions for classes IX and X.
  Apart from the informal classes, children were also learning painting, Art, Pot,
  Papercraft, yoga, computer skills, and music. Ms. Suman Kachari, 13 years, a
  student of class VII became first in the online singing competition, which was held by
  Nixobdo online singing competition (nihobdo@gmail.com; Instagram page:
  nixobdo_unity) on 19th June 2021.
  

• Meetings with Adolescent Group– Three quarterly meetings with adolescent groups were held in Durgapur T.E. In these meetings, they discussed the role of youth in society, the importance of education, health precautions, etc.

• Online Scholarship– Sri Manish Rai, the animator from Durgapur T.E., explored and motivated the students to apply for the online scholarship program at sirish.ttwonlineapplication.in. On this site, the pre-secondary and post-secondary scholarship was sponsored for class IX/X of the children of Tea Garden workers. 15 students of Durgapur T.E. filled up the form for scholarship in Oct 2021. Three students secured the pre-metric scholarship of Rs. 5000/ only each and two students of post-metric received Rs. 7000/ only respectively. There is also Simon Sing Horo Special Scholarship Scheme (one-time benefit for HSLC/HSSLC passed candidate) which was further explored for the higher education students and the necessary applications are made thereof. In the „Sirish scholarship,’ the students till now have not received any stipend.
  

• Radio Program with Students– From 20th April 2021 to 25th April 2021, a Radio program was organized by Bharatiya Cha Parishad in Collaboration with UNICEF and Radio FM 94, the students from three T.E i.e., Ethelwood T.E, Mancotta T.E., Jallan Nagar T.E., and Durgapur T.E, organized a program about school dropout phenomenon and how it impacts the overall well-being and development of students. The student representatives from each tea garden went to the Radio station and discussed the same. The program was uploaded to the Radio FM 94 station.