EMERGENCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL TEA DAY

The Institute of Social Development (ISD) is pleased to be associated with the declaration of the International Tea Day. ISD together with the Centre for Education and Communication (CEC) campaigned for the betterment of the tea workers in Sri Lanka and India at the Asian Social Forum in 2003 (Hyderabad, India).

In the year 2004, prior to the Mumbai WSF, The Global Tea Conference on the tea crisis was held in Lonawala. Trade Union and NGO delegates from India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Bangladesh, Tanzania along with other Professionals and Researchers, participated in this conference. 

At the conclusion of the Lonawala Conference, a declaration was made on Labour Rights, called the Lonawala Declaration. It was at this conference that the suggestion was made to declare an International Tea day. This idea was subsequently adopted at the Global Tea Conference held in the WSF, Mumbai. In the year 2005, at the Tea Conference held in Porto Allegre, Brazil, the participants proposed the 15^th of December as the Day of the International Tea Workers and Small Growers.

The CEC was requested to function as the Secretariat and organize the First International Tea Day, and we express our sincere thanks and greetings to the participants of the event.  

The Second International Tea Day Conference is now being organized by the Institute of Social Development (ISD), to be held in Sri Lanka. Let us hope that this conference too will help in empowering and liberating the tea plantation community.