GUWAHATI, MAY 22 : NCERT will place before its Textbook Development Committee a proposal to include tea as a chapter in its textbooks following a request by the North East Tea Association (NETA) in this regard.
NETA had appealed to the Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani to include a chapter on Tea and its role in the economy and society in the school textbooks, its advisor Bidyanand Barkakoty said.
In its reply, NCERT had said in a letter the National Education Policy was in the process of being formulated and as a follow-up, curriculum framework and other teaching learning materials would be developed.
This would be placed before the Textbook Development Committee during revision of textbooks, the letter said.
Contents related to tea have been already included at relevant places in all geography textbooks from Class VI to Class VIII, it said.
Tea is an important crop in the country and keeping this in view, geographic conditions for its cultivation and tea leaves harvesting by women have been illustrated through textbooks. Distribution of tea areas in the country has also been shown through maps, the letter added.
Barkakoty in his letter to Irani said India was the largest producer and the largest consumer of black tea in the world, growing about 25 per cent of the world’s total tea.
The 109-year old tea industry is one of the largest employers in the organised sector in the country with 50 per cent of workers being women. Hence Indian tea industry is the single largest employer of women.
Eighty three per cent households in India consume tea and the penetration of tea in Indian household is in the range of 96 to 99 per cent in both urban and rural areas, he said.
In Assam tea is not just a product or commodity, it is a culture steeped in history and replete with highlights of development and contribution to economic growth and social progress, Jorhat MP Kamakhya Prasad Tassa said in
another letter to Irani.
He said it was justified to have a chapter on tea in school curriculum as the industry is agro-based and labour oriented providing direct employment to over one million people.
An additional 10 million people derive their livelihood through its forward and backward linkages.
Tea is also the cheapest drink in the world, next only to water and is the most widely consumed beverage across the length and breadth of the nation, he said.
Besides, tea is the only beverage in India which has its roots in India’s freedom struggle. The first Indian tea planter Maniram Dewan was hanged by the British for his involvement in the 1857 Mutiny, Tassa added.