Kutharti Bhumij keeps his “digital land patta”, a large cardboard certificate, in a cupboard in his brother’s house. The patta was recently handed over to Bhumij, a worker at Dinjoy Tea Estate in Dibrugarh, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which has virtually turned him into a celebrity in the labour lines – residential quarters of tea garden workers adjoining the plantations — where he lives. He also seems to have become a symbol of hope and aspirations for many tea workers in the area.“It was good, he (Modi) hugged me. I didn’t expect that,” says Bhumij. He says he is due to retire in five years, having worked in the local tea estate for all his life – as did his parents and, before them, their ancestors.“We have never had any land in our name. My son will also start working here soon, so I hope after retirement I will be able to build a pucca house on this land,” he says, standing in front of his kutcha house, which was allotted to him a decade ago as part of tea workers’ accommodation. The title deed states this land is 15 lessa belonging to his father Durga Bhumij.Just ahead of the Assam elections, the PM, at an event in Guwahati on March 13, kicked off distribution of land pattas to tea-garden workers in their housing quarters, calling it a step towards correcting “historic injustices”.Read | Rumblings of discontent among BJP leaders dropped for recent recruits from CongressThis has marked the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government’s biggest measure for the benefit of the politically-significant tea workers so far. The ownership of land in their labour lines has been a long-standing demand by tea tribes and their worker bodies. This has also been a thorny issue for the tea gardens’ owners and management though, whose bodies have gone to court against the government’s decision. The BJP dispensation still managed to push it before the April 9 polls, distributing land deeds to 28,241 tea workers’ families while pledging to grant such pattas to 3.33 lakh families.Assam tea garden workers are mostly adivasis from the Chota Nagpur plateau region, who had been brought to the state by the British in the late 19th century as indentured labourers to work in the plantations. Reeling from the cycle of generational poverty and marginalisation, they have continued to be one of the most socio-economically backward communities in the state. Accounting for about 17% of Assam’s population, they have also been a crucial factor in the state’s electoral politics, playing a decisive role in 30-35 seats of the 126-member Assembly.Read | As Congress shrinks in Assam, how 2024 boost has put BJP in pole position in 2026Tea gardens in Assam are largely spread across the Upper and North Assam districts of Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Lakhimpur and Sonitpur. The BJP-led NDA alliance had swept all but six of 42 seats in these districts in the 2021 Assembly polls, when the NDA had bagged 75 seats as against the Congress-led Opposition alliance’s 50 in the state. Barak Valley in South Assam also has a sizeable tea industry.Story continues below this ad“This (BJP) government has been doing things for us. I have got a land deed too,” says Shaktisingh Rajput, another worker at Dinjoy. “There are lots of different asonis (beneficiary schemes) and most people are getting something or the other. My wife just got Rs 9,000 from the Orunodoi scheme (cash scheme for women). But I’m still waiting for money under Eti Koli Duti Paat, I have been told there are some issues… I don’t think we were given this much by any other government.”Launched by the Sarma government earlier this year, Eti Koli Duti Paat is a one-time financial aid scheme of Rs 5,000 for every tea worker.In another tea garden, Panitola Tea Estate, workers have been given forms for land patta allocation, but some of them point to “unfulfilled promises” too. “For years now, we have been hearing promises about us being given Scheduled Tribe (ST) status but we haven’t got that yet. The BJP had earlier promised an increase in our wages to Rs 351, but that also hasn’t happened. Just before the elections, they have announced an increase by Rs 30 which is far less. Now we have got the land patta forms, but I don’t know if we will actually get it,” says a worker Ajay Kalundi.The current wages of tea garden workers in the Brahmaputra Valley is Rs 250 per day. The government recently hiked it by Rs 30 to be effective from April 1.Story continues below this adThe word has already spread among tea workers that some of them have received land deeds, which has spurred their hopes. “We haven’t got the forms in our labour lines till now, but we have heard that some people have got patta at Dinjoy. I am happy that my family is getting benefits from different schemes. My mother is getting Orunodoi. I got Rs 10,000 under the self-help scheme (Mukhya Mahila Udyamita Abhiyaan) with which I bought a goat. I have got Eti Koli Duti Paat. But the biggest things would be the land patta and ST status. Now people are saying that since some people have got the land patta, if the same government comes back, the rest of us will get it too,” says Rekha Nayak Bal, 35, who works as a tea plucker at Sealkotee Tea Estate.Some tea estate managements have however opposed the Sarma government’s land deed initiative. Last November, the government amended the land ceiling land law to enable it to identify labour lines as “surplus land” – thereby excluding them as land with purposes ancillary to special cultivation – and acquire it in a bid to clear the decks for patta distribution.A tea garden manager, who did not want to be identified, says they have been responding to the government’s notices, flagging that the statutory framework of a tea garden mandates “employer-provided housing as a welfare requirement and the availability of labour lines is needed for it”. “We have sought clarification on how they (government) propose that we meet this statutory requirement if the labour lines are acquired. But they haven’t responded and are pushing through it. There are bound to be issues,” he adds.However, the government’s patta step has been gaining traction among tea workers and their associations. “This is a demand that we have been making since Independence, and only this government has had the courage to go ahead and help our people get a piece of land, even though it has faced opposition from owners and managers,” says All Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association vice-president Lazar Nanda. The body’s ex-president Dhiraj Gowala has been fielded by the BJP as its candidate in this election.Story continues below this adThe Congress’s candidate from the Chabua-Lahowal seat, Pranjal Ghatowar, son of influential tea tribe leader and ex-Union minister Paban Singh Ghatowar, dismissed the government’s moves as “merely symbolic”.“The land patta issue has been a long-standing demand but there are many unresolved issues, so it is being pushed out chaotically before the election as a symbolic move, but I think it will run into problems. Also, the government is giving out money through schemes but at the same time our representation is dwindling. There used to be over 10 MLAs from tea tribes in the Assembly, which is now down to just five. We must talk about that, and about the key issues of education and healthcare for the communities,” he says.