Tea workers across the country have been staging demonstrations for more than a month making for four demands, including a daily wage of Tk 500.

Nearly three in four mothers working in Bangladesh's tea gardens are psychologically vulnerable or unwell, a new study finds, worn down by starvation wages, wage theft and a second unpaid shift at home. The toll does not stop with them. Researchers found the majority of their young children already show signs of emotional and behavioural distress.

Tea workers may not have had their demands fulfilled, but their united voice brings in a new era of workers' rights.

Nineteen days after they started a demonstration demanding daily wage of Tk 300, tea garden workers have joined work today (August 28, 2022) for daily wage of Tk 170.

Almost a century ago, tea workers in Sylhet left their gardens and started a journey back to the lands of their origin -- Bihar, Odisha and Assam. It was a protest march they called “Mulluke Cholo” (Let's go back home). The protest was against the inhumane working conditions and torture at the hands of British owners.

Many labourers working at the tea gardens in the country are not aware of the significance or history behind May Day. "Around one lakh out of seven lakh workers at 163 tea gardens aren't aware of the day, they knew the day is a public holiday,"