COVID19 and rising mental health illness among women tea workers of Assam – Gaonconnection

Sivasagar, Assam

Riya Mahananda is eight months pregnant and worried sick. The 25-year-old works on a tea plantation in Bamunpukhuri in the Sivasagar district, Assam. She worked until the seventh month of pregnancy and is now on paid maternity leave. When she worked, she had to pick her daily quota of 15 kilograms of tea leaves to claim her daily wage of 275 rupees.

Taking a day off or failing to meet the quota means a wage cut that, according to the mother-to-be, she cannot afford. But even now, despite being on maternity leave, Mahananda is a concerned woman.

“I can’t help being afraid for my unborn child. What if I get Corona, ”Mahananda asked the Gaon Connection. “There is a hospital in the tea garden where I work, but there is seldom a doctor. Usually it is midwives and nurses who give birth to the babies, ”she said.

Also read: Assam election 2021: the story of Assam’s tea workers and broken election promises

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the plight of tea pickers, especially women, worse in the approximately 800 tea gardens in Assam. Things got tougher during the second wave, when over 500 of the state’s tea gardens were affected and more than 100,000 workers tested positive for the coronavirus, killing about 100 people. Many of the gardens, especially in Upper Assam, have been converted into security zones.

“Some of the women work well into the advanced weeks of pregnancy without having access to basic facilities such as toilets or even drinking water. This stress, combined with domestic violence, substance abuse and early marriage, has led to mental health problems, ”Renuka Gowala, a tea worker-related social activist, told Gaon Connection.

“And these psychological problems have worsened due to COVID19. The work during the pandemic, the fear of the unknown and no support have led to depression in many tea pickers, ”added the 55-year-old school teacher from Chakimukh in Sivasagar district, who met with a delegation of tea workers, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma last month, on August 30th, to brief him on the various problems faced by tea workers including increasing mental health problems.

Also read: Around 12 lakh daily bets that work in tea plantations across India are struggling to survive

The mental health of tea pickers is an area that continues to be neglected. Most gardens have no psychiatrists or clinical psychologists, and if you had to consult them, they would have to travel long distances for diagnosis and treatment, Gowla said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the plight of tea pickers, especially women, worse. Photo: Chandrani Sinha

Increasing psychological problems among tea workers

As in other parts of the country, the pandemic has spawned the disastrous health infrastructure in Assam, even more so in the tea gardens that support a huge community. And that’s where mental health problems become a very real problem, especially among women.

“Depression, anxiety disorder, panic attack, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and psychosomatic disorders are very common among tea workers, and most of the time they are not even aware of them,” Nilesh Mohite, counseling psychiatrist, told Gaon Connection. He works with Parivartan Trust and Action Northeast Trust (ANT), a nonprofit that operates in the state’s Chirang district. Mohite has worked with tea tribes for four years and has worked in tea gardens in Sivasagar, Chabua, Biswanath Chariali, Tezpur, Dhekiajuli and Silchar.

“Mania, schizophrenia, and bipolar illness are some of the serious mental illnesses experienced by tea workers. We also saw a huge increase in suicidal tendencies during the pandemic, ”said the psychiatrist.

Also Read: The Pandemic and the Mind: Mental Health Problems Increase in All Categories

There are hundreds of pregnant tea workers like Riya Mahananda going through psychological stress and trauma when giving birth to their children, and poor health infrastructure does not help them.

“Progesterone levels rise during pregnancy. The COVID situation has pushed pregnant tea workers to become more stressful, ”Sangeeta Dutta, senior consultant, neuropsychiatrist, Medicity Hospital in Guwahati, capital Assam, told Gaon Connection. “Now these women are forced to have more contact time with their perpetrators. And with schools closed, they need to give their children more time too, ”Dutta said, adding how the pandemic has exacerbated the mental health crisis among tea workers.

There are no mental health services for these poor women. Photo: Rajen Bora

Bad health system, vacancies

According to data released earlier this month by the National Health Mission Assam, 50 percent of tea gardens in the state do not have doctors. Sources from the country’s health department, who refused to be named, said several positions for health workers were vacant in the garden hospitals.

Vacancies include 175 Health Assistant jobs, 200 General Nursing and Midwifery Nurses (GNM), 660 pharmacists, 300 midwifery auxiliaries (ANM), 350 laboratory technicians and 600 ward boys. With even basic medical resources scarce in the tea gardens, care for mental health problems is a long way off.

Also read: Only 4 psychiatrists for over 10 million people in Uttarakhand; 24 of 28 approved positions are vacant

While the plantation workers’ medical advisory board had ordered the tea garden hospitals to have a supply of 200 vital medicines, most of them have no more than 50 of them, health department sources said.

Tea workers suffer

For Mahananda, her only support system is Jayanti Baag, or baideo (sister in Assamese), the 43-year-old accredited social health activist (ASHA) from Nazira, Sivasagar. In fact, in many parts of Assam, it is the ASHA workers who deal with the problems of tea pickers who have no one else. But they are not trained to deal with mental health problems.

At the Ghoghrajan tea plantation in the Dibrugarh district, 455 km from Guwahati, Shanti Kurmi turned to an ASHA baideo when she was expecting her baby. 21-year-old Kurmi, who gave birth to her second child, a boy, at Assam Medical College Dibrugarh three months ago, said, “I did not have any medication and Baideo managed to get it for me.” Kurmi said Gaon Connection.

When Assam public health facilities were exposed to patients being treated for COVID-19, mental health also suffered. The state lockdown made it difficult for tea workers like Kurmi and Mahananda to access health facilities and health care providers.

Also read: Should India’s health infrastructure include traditional midwives?

Given the poor health infrastructure in the state’s tea gardens, the Assam Tea Tribe Students Association (ATTSA) made a series of demands on the prime minister in a press release on May 7 this year on behalf of the tea garden community. These included setting up COVID-19 care centers with oxygen support in each garden, vaccinations for workers and families, and distributing N-95 masks.

Meanwhile, several COVID19 vaccination campaigns are taking place in tea gardens under the Assam National Health Mission and the Director of the Health Service (Family Welfare) to stop the future spread of the virus.

The Assam government claims it took active measures in 2018, such as introducing the wage compensation system for pregnant women in tea gardens. As part of this money transfer program, pregnant women who work in the tea gardens receive Rs 12,000 from the government.

Also read: COVID-19 lockdown, irregular rain: Small tea farmers in Assam suffer huge losses

In addition, the state government has set up 130 mobile medical units, 80 of them in the tea gardens. These mobile units currently cover 414 tea gardens per month. The mobile medical units are clinics on wheels, supervised by a doctor, nurse and paramedical staff, and equipped with basic free diagnostic services and medication.

According to the National Health Mission Assam, between June 2017 and January 2019, more than 2.03 million patients were treated in 47,020 camps organized by these mobile medical units. However, these do not address the mental health problems that tea workers face.

Due to a lack of awareness and extreme poverty, these tea workers rely on local quacks for treatment. Photo: Simanta Barman

Mental health clinics

In 2017, the first of the monthly mental health clinics was established in Chabua. It was initiated by Jeevan Siksha, a non-profit organization based in Chabua, Dibrugarh District, with the support of the Action Northeast Trust.

Forty-four clinical workshops have been held over the past four years, including several tea gardens.

These clinics operate mainly in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh district. In 2020-21, the camps held during the pandemic saw an increase in the number of patient registrations. Jeevan Shiksha volunteers, who also come from the villages in the district, do volunteer work in the clinic camps.

Also read: “Those who work in my tea plantation now need my help. I want to help so many “

However, high consultancy fees and drug costs deter several tea workers from seeking help in these mental health camps. “Many stop coming because they can’t pay the rupee 400 fee for the first registration and then rupee 350 a month until the patient is well. The fee includes the consultation of doctors and medicines, ”Proshik Das, managing trustee of Jeevan Siksha, told Gaon Connection.

“The government does not have sufficient funds to support mental health programs, so we have taken the initiative,” said the acting trustee. “We have patients with severe mental disorders in our clinics. Due to a lack of awareness of mental disorders, they only come to us when the disorder takes the form of schizophrenia, etc., ”said Das.

For most tea garden workers, education is a luxury and, due to a lack of awareness and extreme poverty, they rely on local quacks and tantriks for treatment. This often drives the mental disorders to serious levels, Das concluded.

This story was published under the National Foundation of India Fellowship for Independent Journalists. Names of tea workers were changed on request.

source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/16/covid19-and-rising-mental-health-illness-among-women-tea-workers-of-assam-gaonconnection/