Their main job is to fill water from the tube wells in the command area and serve tea to the workers. During the summer, they sometimes have to carry water all day long.
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Parman Murmu, 58, has been working at Kalika Tea Kaman in Mechinagar-15, Jhapa for 34 years. For the past 15 years, the company has entrusted him with a different responsibility - quenching the thirst of workers.
Carrying 4 crushed and dirty silver jugs and 4 identical mugs, he quenches the thirst of workers. His main job is to fill water from the tube well in the command area and serve tea to the workers. He gives about 100 liters of water to about 100 workers daily.
‘We have to give water 4-5 times a day,’ Murmu said, ‘When the heat increases, 9-10 times is enough.’
There is a separate rank for giving water in the company. In the past, there were two ‘waterers’, when the number of workers was high. Murmu is now alone. With the reduction in workers, the waterman was also reduced from two to one. Murmu is a year younger than Kalika Tea Kamman in the job. The command started in 2048. He was recruited in 2049. Before that, he lived near the Bhindi settlement in Ali Mastir. He was born in Parakhopi, Haldibari. In 2027-2028, he came to the then Jyamirgadhi VDC with his father in search of work. ‘Earlier, there was a big forest here,’ he recalls, ‘The forest was cut down to make rice fields. Now, rice is used to make tea.’
He also worked hard in the rice fields. After the plantation started, he left rice and started planting tea.
The company also built a hut. He got married there. He has been dependent on the company's hut for more than 30 years. He has neither a house nor land. He got his son and daughter married off from the hut. His wife also picks leaves.
In 2055 BS, he became permanent in the job. Now, he is about two years away from retirement. He receives a salary of 33 hundred rupees more per week. Two hundred rupees is deducted from the provident fund. His wife also receives around two thousand rupees.
He dreams of living happily after retirement by saving the money he receives from the provident fund. ‘I have shed blood and sweat for the company for so long, now I want to do something for myself,’ he laughs, ‘but, at this age, I don’t know what to do.’
000
Raj Tea Estate is in Mechinagar 7. For 35 years, Shivan Kanwar’s sweat has been irrigating the tea estate. He is one of the first workers of the tea estate.
There is nothing he has not done in this field. Sometimes he dug the soil, sometimes he dug the ditches. Sometimes he even had to pick leaves. Now he quenches the thirst of the workers by carrying water. Before that, he used to spray pesticides.
‘When I was pressed for a long time, I felt sick,’ said 58-year-old Kanwar, ‘I have been carrying water for a year.’
He doesn't carry it like Parman, he carries it on a bicycle. That's why it's not as difficult for him as Parman. He fills the bucket and loads it on his bicycle. Wherever the workers are, he goes there and pours water. 'Water consumption depends on the weather,' he said, 'less in winter, more in summer.'
Sometimes during summer, he carries water all day long. He works hard to quench the thirst of about a hundred workers.
His wife also picks leaves. Two of his three sons are in Saudi Arabia. The youngest one was born last year. ‘I have about two years of work left,’ he said, ‘if I can move my hands and feet after work, I will work hard, otherwise I will sleep.’
Born in Dhulabari, he once crossed the Mechi River to work in a tea estate and reached Panighatta near Naxalbari. However, he could not stay there for long. Eventually, he returned. Then he married a woman from a tea estate. Since then, he has been working continuously at Raj Tea Estate.
