ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on in-depth interviews of 19 women nine estate sector workers, four tea growers, five women working as paid labour in the small tea gardens and one working in a Project Tea Garden. Participation of women in the tea plantation sector has remained significantly high along with other plantation crops such as coffee and rubber. Women's work has traditionally been divided into the areas of production both economic as well as social and reproduction. With the intensity of specialization, women's work got segregated with an apparent sexual division of labor. The approach to women's labour in the context of the rigours of plantation life should not be viewed as women being the adaptable, flexible, subservient or docile worker. Given the dismal state of education as a human development indicator for the tea workers and small grower's community, it is imperative that their employment is guaranteed and retained for the future generation.
