International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
Alinda Kashyap, Dr. Shishir Kala, Dr. Manorama Gupta and Dr. Dipankar Saikia

abstract
Being rich in natural resources, Assam is known for tea, the plant that grows naturally in Upper Brahmaputra valley of the state. Bestowed with the title ‘State drink of Assam’, tea happens to be one of the oldest and most beloved beverage of the state. Women being the primary worker in the garden are employed particularly for the tea plucking task. They spend hours in standing, plucking and carrying the tea leaves in basket which is perceived to be the most strenuous task. The aim of the study is to determine the occupational factors and assess the behaviour of the respondents towards the occupational factors. With respect to the objectives of the study, in-depth personal interviews were conducted on the chosen 60 respondents selected randomly from Dekorai tea estate of Biswanath district, Assam. To achieve this purpose, the study was guided by questions in the area of background information of the respondents, occupational factors in terms of three aspects: work related factors, organizational factors and familial factors, behaviour of the respondents towards the occupational factors The study reveals that the socio-economic life of the women tea puckers’ is woeful. The difficulty faced by the tea pluckers was found to be highest in organisational factor This necessitates immediate policy initiatives to improve their socioeconomic status, which will bring about social and economic transformation in our country.