Faire Teeplantage Uttar Nowgaon (Assam/India)

On the northern edge of the Indian state of Assam lies the village of Uttar Nowgaon, just before the border with Bhutan. 56 families, i.e. 276 inhabitants, live here mainly from their agriculture and the tea plantations in this region. The population works as day laborers and is all below the poverty line. Unemployment and low wages are the norm. The daily wage in a tea plantation is around €1.80. In the village there is a primary and "Middle English" school, near the village there is a small infirmary. Around 100 villages are located in Mazbat Block, which includes Uttar Novgaon. The High School and Higher Secondary School are around 10 km away.

All inhabitants of the village are Lutheran Christians, because their ancestors immigrated from the Jeypore Church in Orissa to the north-east of India to find work in the tea plantations. So there is a small village church in the village. The community owns about 1 hectare of land here, on which the Uttar Nowgaon Social Tea Plantation was built. Construction started in autumn 2014 and the plant was opened in summer 2016. Since 2018, there has been the first harvest on the site. Within the first eight years, the crop yield will increase until the plant is "grown up".

The profits generated by the community's own tea plantation are to be used for health and social projects in the village. For this purpose, a 7-member village committee was founded, which decides on current development projects.

The plant is in the hands of the village population, who are driving the project forward very independently and with commitment. Mandelzweig-Projekthilfe e.V. evaluates the project on an ongoing basis. The last evaluation took place in October 2019.