Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (or APPL) is India’s second largest tea producer. Over 155,000 tea workers live and work on APPL’s 25 tea plantations in the north-east Indian states of Assam and West Bengal. APPL came into being in 2007 when Tata Tea (now Tata Global Beverages) decided to divest from its plantation business. In 2009, the World Bank Group invested in APPL through a US$7.8 million investment. With a mandate to reduce poverty, the World Bank planned to empower tea workers by improving their living and working conditions, and providing them with ownership of the company. In theory, if workers became shareholders of APPL, they would gain decision-making power, increase their earnings, and be lifted out of poverty.

In November 2016, a report released by the World Bank Group’s accountability watchdog, known as the “CAO” (Compliance Advisor Ombudsman) found that this plan had failed. The watchdog found that living and working conditions were sub-standard, that wages do not protect the health of workers, and that APPL workers were not given proper information about their rights as shareholders. The World Bank Group was supposed to create an action plan that would directly, and in a timely fashion, address the watchdog’s findings. Unfortunately, the Bank ignored most of the findings and endorsed a limited action plan, called “Project Unnati” – “progress”in Hindi – which only addresses a smaller subset of issues. Project Unnati was agreed upon by Tata Global Beverages and APPL in 2014 after the former commissioned an audit of the plantations.

In July 2017, Team AccountabiliTEA met with workers from three APPL plantations in Assam to verify whether the limited promises under Project Unnati were being fulfilled. The exposé below – called Project AccountabiliTEA – documents, through photographic evidence, that the World Bank has broken its promises yet again. Workers on APPL plantations are continuing to face oppressive living conditions, unfair wages and the curtailment of fundamental freedoms.

Today, the workers need your support to carry their voices to those in power. Raise your voice to demand accountabiliTEA for workers in Assam and end exploitation on Assam’s tea plantations!