The tea workers’ movement and the need for land reform in Bangladesh

December marks the ninth anniversary of the land protection movement organised by Bangladeshi tea workers under the banner of Chandpur Bhumi Rakkhya Committee (Chandpur Land Protection Committee) to prevent cultivated agricultural land from being converted to an economic zone.  

In August 2022, tea workers had also demanded changes to their hyper-exploitative working conditions which set the stage for the national tea worker movement for wages. The success of both the land and wage movements led to the election of the first tea worker leader Khairun Akter to local council. 

While the movement has been successful in preventing the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) from seizing fertile, agricultural lands that tea workers have cleared and cultivated for generations, to date, the dispute over rights to the 511 acres have not been resolved. 

It remains on the list of land acquired for purposes of creating an economic zone. 

BEZA is a central government agency whose stated purpose is to establish economic zones in all potential areas in Bangladesh, including "backward and underdeveloped" regions with a view to encouraging rapid economic development. 

Under Bangladesh's Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Act (2017), the government can acquire land under "any public purpose or in the public interest". BEZA is then able to designate land for the creation of economic zones which seek to entice foreign investors.  

But under BEZA's regulatory framework, there is no mechanism for the public to lodge their opposition to a land acquisition. The 2017 law has been severely misused by local political elites to seize government land for industrial development that benefitted them. 

The land in question was falsely certified as being fallow, which triggered the BEZA provisions and enabled the government to threaten the seizure of the land.  

Without a land title, the tea workers' claim to the land remains precarious. The food grown on this land is used by households to improve their families' nutritional intake and is also sold in the market to supplement their paltry dollar-a-day wages. Without this food and additional income, it is extremely difficult for tea workers to make a living. 

Since 2016, through scholarship, activism and public education, I have been focused on land rights for tea workers and to join the demand that BEZA release their claim on the land and designate it to tea workers under Bangladesh's long-standing khas land policy. 

Under khas policy, the government of Bangladesh can transfer agricultural land to the landless poor.  Khas land means government owned fallow land, where nobody has property rights. It is land which is deemed to be owned by the government and available for allocation according to government priorities. 

Without a land title, the tea workers' claim to the land remains precarious. The food grown on this land is used by households to improve their families' nutritional intake and is also sold in the market to supplement their paltry dollar-a-day wages. Without this food and additional income, it is extremely difficult for tea workers to make a living.

Bangladesh's National Land Policy 2001 also seeks to stop the conversion of agricultural land to non-agricultural land. The purpose of this land policy is to alleviate poverty and to rectify past land policy issues that led to the poor becoming landless — a major issue in Bangladesh to this day.  

Khas policy is also a response to colonial land policies like the Permanent Settlement Act of 1793 that gave land ownership to the elites in exchange for loyalty to the British. Sadly, land policies in Bangladesh still work in a similar fashion to colonial times, except to engorge the appetites of local elites.  

Without a comprehensive reform of land policies, with a particular attention to its impact on rural poor, indigenous communities, Bangladesh is in essence maintaining the legal scheme of the colonial era. 

In the tea workers' struggle, we see this clearly where the previous regime under the guise of BEZA essentially seized land for foreign investors' interests. 

Tea workers who have cultivated the land for tea and agricultural production are precisely the people the National Land Policy was intended to protect. 

Yet, despite working in tea gardens for generations, they remain landless. Their right to live on the tea plantation is dependent on them working in the plantations. As such, they are unable to free themselves of this low paid work. 

Land ownership will help them gain some economic autonomy. Because several families cultivate this land, I propose that the grant of the land to the tea workers be structured in the form of a cooperative land trust that could also be beneficial for people living in the surrounding areas.  

Bangladesh can learn from developments in African and Latin American nations, particularly indigenous communities, on the power of cooperative, collective land ownership systems that has benefits for all in the community in terms of food security, livelihoods, sustainability.  

The tea workers' movement against the seizure of land should not be viewed solely as an issue for tea workers. Land reform for Bangladeshi rural poor is long overdue. 

Export-oriented industrialisation geared towards attracting foreign investment has been a powerful driver for possessing land in the name of economic development.  

As a result, we see an alarming trend of the placement of industries on arable, agricultural land, due to saturation in urban areas. This has led to rapid land loss, threatening food security, displacing rural workers, and forcing many to urban areas in search of work, and even making them vulnerable to labour traffickers who entice them with opportunities abroad. 

Innovative cooperative land ownership projects to address the issue of landless poor has in fact been part of Bangladesh's economic development policy since its independence. 

Bangladesh's Constitution promotes agriculture and land reform through several provisions.

Article 16 explicitly obligates the state to bring about a "radical transformation in the rural areas through the promotion of an agricultural revolution". In addition, Article 14, states that the government has a "fundamental responsibility to free peasants, workers, and other disadvantaged groups from exploitation".  

On the international level, Bangladesh has adopted the 2018 landmark UN Declaration on the Right of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) better protect the rights of all rural populations including peasants, fisher folks, nomads, agricultural workers and indigenous peoples and to improve living conditions, as well as to strengthen food sovereignty, the fight against climate change and the conservation of biodiversity

Scant attention has been paid to land policies which stand to benefit the vast majority of Bangladeshis. In a recent conversation, a district judge informed me that the vast number of disputes he hears are related to land. 

Yet, there is no attention given to land reform or how progressive land policies may not only alleviate rural poverty, stem outward migration, but also have other benefits such as unclogging our already overwhelmed local courts. 

What inspired me about the tea workers movement was not only their specific struggle, as one of the more marginalised sectors of our society, but also because their struggle surfaced the broader fight and urgent need for land reform.  

Draped with Bangladeshi flags, tea workers chanted, "My Mother.  My Land. I will not let them take it away from me," symbolically signifying the significant role that land plays in our national liberation consciousness. 

With the new interim government and energy from the July revolution, there is now an opportunity to implement land reform.  Let us ensure that Bangladesh's land policies reflect the aspiration of our independence movement and benefit the most marginalised people of our society — the landless rural poor. 

Chaumtoli Huq is a Professor of Law at the CUNY School of Law, New York City. Her interdisciplinary scholarship examines the intersection of law and political economy with a focus on US/Bangladesh.