In a landmark move, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced one of India’s most sweeping land reforms, handing ownership rights to over 3.5 lakh tea plantation worker families. This historic initiative, unveiled on Tuesday, marks a pivotal step toward social justice for the tea tribe community that has long fueled the state’s iconic tea industry.
Speaking on social media platform X, Sarma highlighted the Assam Fixation of Ceiling on Land Holdings (Amendment) Act, 2025, as the legal backbone of this reform. For generations, these workers toiled on Assam’s sprawling tea estates, cultivating the world’s finest teas, yet they never owned the very land beneath their homes. Confined to labor lines within plantations, they lived under the constant threat of eviction if estates shut down or jobs ended.
Previous land laws had exempted tea gardens from reform provisions, leaving the ground under workers’ dwellings as company property. The new amendment flips this injustice on its head. The state government is now acquiring labor line lands from plantations and issuing land pattas—formal ownership documents—to eligible families.
This reform spans over 825 tea gardens across Assam, benefiting more than 3.5 lakh families in what officials describe as one of the nation’s largest land redistributions in recent years. Beyond securing homes, it opens doors to schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, empowering workers with housing upgrades and welfare benefits.
Sarma emphasized that this isn’t just about land; it’s about dignity and recognition for a community central to Assam’s economy and culture. While opposition parties engage in rhetoric, his government prioritizes tangible empowerment. ‘We’ve chosen structural reforms over speeches,’ he asserted, underscoring a commitment to inclusive growth.
As these families transition from tenants to owners, Assam sets a precedent for addressing historical inequities, ensuring long-term socio-economic upliftment for tea tribes and bolstering the state’s developmental narrative.