Luxmi Tea's Assam Estates Win Harassment-Prevention Award
An Assam tea operator's harassment-prevention program, credited with reaching about 10,000 workers over two years by the company's own account, drew a national award in New Delhi.
Luxmi Tea, a Kolkata-based company with about 13 tea estates in Assam, received the Excellence in POSH Governance and Compliance Award in New Delhi on July 24 for its handling of workplace harassment complaints on estates where the pluckers are mostly women, the Sentinel Assam reported.
India's tea gardens draw on a workforce close to seven million, and plucking is done mostly by women. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 requires every workplace with 10 or more employees to maintain an Internal Committee to receive and resolve harassment complaints. The law sets the requirement; what the committee does on any given estate depends on the operator. Assam sells mostly as a blend, and packets rarely name the gardens the leaf came from, so a drinker cannot tell which estate a cup came from.
The award was presented at the 4th National POSH Conclave and Excellence Awards 2026, organized by NoMeansNo, an initiative of the Centre for Skill Development and Training, with support from the Delhi government's Department of Women and Child Development.
Luxmi said it ran 144 POSH awareness workshops over two years, reaching about 10,000 permanent and temporary workers, and that it appointed estate-level "POSH Champions" and trained the members of its Internal Committees. The company named two women in that structure: Monumoti Kalandi, a plucker at Moran Tea Estate and a committee member, and Atoli Achumi, senior assistant manager at Narayanpur Tea Estate and presiding officer for the North Bank estates. Luxmi said women on its estates have also taken up work outside plucking, including beekeeping and honey production, tea tourism homestays, traditional weaving and vermicomposting.
The workshop and worker figures are the company's own account and have not been independently verified. India CSR, the other outlet carrying them, reproduces Luxmi's press materials. World Tea News reported the same two women in October 2024, spelling the first name Monumoti Kalindi, and said Luxmi had been running POSH awareness sessions with its certification partner Trustea since 2018.
Sources: Sentinel Assam, India CSR, World Tea News