Darjeeling is surrounded by beautiful tea gardens. Makaibari, 2 hours from Darjeeling, is an an independant, middle size (still 250 hectars) fairtrade tea garden. We spent a day with Raja, its owner to show us around. A great caracter, Raja was one of the pioneers in fairtrade and has strong views about it. He is a man close to the ground with an advanced approach in natural fertilizers ( he got the organic label years ago) , a parternalistic approach in management and a deep spiritual life, in which he is very Indian. He is a real entrepreneur, with one idea a minute ! He has made Makaibarai a success, a real challenge when competing with huge companies with low prices.
a little steam train called the toy train runs from Darjeeling to New Jalaipuri where you take the train to Calcutta. Its train station signs look familiar....
It is 11:00. The tea workers head back with their tea leav crops in their baskets. Raja know them invidually. Most of these women are educated, the birth rate is low amongst them and their children are all going to school.
Raja and Stephan in the tea garden. This "middle size" estate is huge, comprising 17 villages. Only one third of the land is cultivated, the rest is left as jungle, which is part of the eco-composting that Raja has put in place since he inherited the land. Makaibari is the only tea garden which only ever had Indian owners.
We met with a tea buyer here to taste tea, test the quality and eventually buy it. Did you know that tea bulks were sold by auction ? He confirmed that Makaibari's tea are amongst the most expensive ones. But, even if you earn money, life is tough for tea people : jsut 3 weeks after we were there, the tea garden was struck by a tornado and a part of the estate was destroyed.
This is one striking image of Bihar, a state on the way to New Dehli.( a 36 hour journey from Darjeeling...)
Bihar is a very poor and dry area of India, bacward in many fields. There,women are oppressed : there are only 700 of them for 1000 men ( national average 900 for 1000 men) because a girl is considered a burden so women abort girls ( helped by illegal scans). Being a women in India is tough anyway, once you're married, there is no turning back, you "belong" to your in laws. You become the servant, and in the worst scenarios the slave of the house. Only 45 women in 100 are educated vs 75 in 100 men !
This woman here is carrying some cow dung discs for the fire. the little house at the back is a cow dung pile.
