Tea picking in Bangladesh is carried out exclusively by women and girls from the marginalized Hindu minority. These workers endure grueling conditions, spending over 10 hours daily in the fields, hauling heavy loads of wet tea leaves repeatedly to processing facilities. Despite their labor-intensive work, they earn less than one dollar per day, an exploitative wage that perpetuates poverty. The villages where they reside are part of the tea estates, leaving them dependent on estate owners for basic needs. These estates exhibit many hallmarks of modern slavery, including economic exploitation, restricted mobility, and systemic disenfranchisement, trapping workers in a cycle of oppression.
Finlay tea estate, Pulcherra near Srimangal, September 2014
Hindu village inhabited by tea estate workers, Pulcherra in Srimangal district, Bangladesh, September 2014
Sylhet tea estate, Bangladesh, October 2014
Women carrying the collected tea leafs, Srimangal tea fields, Bangladesh, September 2014
Woman harvesting tea leafs, Sylhet, Bangladesh, September 2014
Srigobindopur, Bangladesh, September 2014
Srimangal tea fields, Bangladesh, September 2014
Tea processing plant, Srigobindopur Tea Estate, Srimangal district, Bangladesh, September 2014
Tea picking in Bangladesh is done exclusively by women and girls of the Hindu minority. Spending more than 10 hours in the fields, they carry heavy loads of wet tea leaves several times a day to the processing plants. One day of work is paid well below one dollar. The villages where they live are part of the tea estates. Tea estates have most characteristics of modern slavery. Tea harvest, Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
First stage of drying the leafs, Srigobindopur Tea Estate, Srimangal, September 2014
Pulcherra tea estate, Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
Srimangal tea fields, Bangladesh, September 2014
Srigobindopur tea processing plant, weighting point, Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
Tea picker's mud house partly collapsed after the monsoon rains, Pulcherra village, Bangladesh, September 2014
Tea workers in Bangladesh are mainly women from the Hindu minority and usually live in villages within the tea estates, Srimangal, October 2014
Tea production site, Srigobindopur Tea Estate, Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
Tea Picker, Malnicherra Tea Estate in Sylhet, Bangladesh, September 2014
Children of tea workers, Pulcherra village, Bangladesh, September 2014
Sylhet, Bangladesh, September 2014
Malnicherra Tea Estate, Sylhet, Bangladesh, September 2014
Tea picker, Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
Short pause, Srimangal tea fields, Bangladesh, September 2014
Tea Pickers bringing their harvest to the estate's processing plant, Srigobindopur Tea Estate, Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
Woman and her tea harvest, Srigobindopur Tea Estate, Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
Tea pickers heading to the fields, Finlay tea estate, Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
Tea pickers getting ready to return to the tea fields after having delivered the first morning harvest, Srimangal processing plant, Bangladesh, September 2014
Pulcherra tea fields, Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
Women working in the Srimangal tea fields, Bangladesh, September 2014
Pulcherra tea estate, Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
Finlay tea estate, Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
Mother and child maintaining tea fields, Srigobindopur village, Bangladesh, September 2014
Tea picker in the Finlay estate fields of Srimangal, Bangladesh, September 2014
Start of the day, Srimangal tea pickers, Bangladesh, September 2014
