ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the changing international trade environment in which India's plantation sector operates. It discusses some of the potential challenges posed by the regional trading agreements, namely Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA), ASEAN-India FTA (AIFTA) and the India EU FTA (IEUFTA), with implications on the plantation sector in general and the women labour in particular. The chapter examines, with the available empirical evidence, the impacts of trade reforms on the performance of the three plantation commodities in general and the effects on employment of women, working conditions and the socio-economic status and welfare of women in plantations. The plantation sector development programmes in the case of both tea and rubber grossly suffer from long-term perspective plans and development strategies, especially in matters relating to sustainable management of plantations in the face of trade reforms on the one side and the perennial issues of the plantation workers.
