Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Topic: North Bengal

North Bengal’s tea gardens, missing childhoods and unending exploitation

Fulmoni Munda’s son Taran (name changed to protect identity as per law), who would be 27 this year, had gone missing in 2011. Fulmoni, a retired tea garden worker who lives with her elder sister in the Matiali block of Malbazar sub-division in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, believes a local goon trafficked him to work in Delhi. The elderly lady waits for her long-lost son in her small cottage with only an old passport-size photo, which hasn’t been of much help in finding him.