When Malati Jhora’s daughter went into labour, the family faced a problem familiar to many workers at Bangladesh’s tea estates…getting to a hospital required money they did not have.
Malati, a worker at Chandpur Tea Estate in Habiganj, had taken her daughter to the estate hospital. A doctor advised transferring her to the upazila hospital. But Malati could not afford the transport.
She turned to Khairun Akter, a fellow tea worker who had spent years helping colleagues in medical emergencies.
Khairun arranged a vehicle and accompanied the family first to the upazila hospital and then to the district hospital. She stayed through the night as Malati’s daughter gave birth and brought the family back to the estate the following day.
Such emergencies have become part of the daily routine for Khairun,
Over the past 13 years she has taken at least 200 critically ill workers to hospitals, often arranging transport, raising money for treatment or paying expenses herself.
She does this while working as a tea labourer, a job in which missing a day's work means losing a day's wage.
The financial sacrifice is not insignificant. Tea workers depend on their daily earnings to feed their families. Illness can mean losing wages precisely when medical expenses begin to mount.
Khairun understands that because she lives with it herself.
“But when a colleague needed urgent medical attention, I always felt like I needed to do something,” Khairun told Daily Waadaa.
Her work has gradually expanded beyond medical emergencies. Today, she is involved in labour disputes and rights campaigns across 24 tea estates in Habiganj, where she has become a familiar figure among workers seeking assistance.
Khairun was 17 when she began working at Chandpur Tea Estate in 2013.
The daughter of tea workers Majid Mia and Moli Begum, she was then a Class 10 student at a local secondary school. She wanted to continue studying, but her family's financial circumstances made that impossible.
Employment at the estate exposed her to the difficulties that shaped the lives of workers around her.
Low wages were only part of the problem. Workers faced difficulties accessing medical care, while discrimination and social prejudice added to their disadvantages.
Khairun was particularly disturbed by the ridicule directed at tea workers because of their skin colour.
“I used to see people mocking tea workers for their dark complexion,” she told Waadaa. “I wondered what fault the workers had in that. God gave them their appearance.”
The experience left a lasting impression on her. She began to see the workers' problems not simply as individual misfortunes but as consequences of their economic and social position.
When someone fell ill, she tried to arrange treatment. When a family could not afford hospital transport, she looked for a vehicle. When medical expenses exceeded a worker's means, she approached people willing to contribute.
Sometimes, when no other assistance was available, she used her own money.
Workers including Kiran Santal, Basanti Jhora, Sandhya Bhumij, Parbati Nayek and Asha Goala describe receiving help from her.
They say Khairun often leaves her work to accompany sick colleagues to hospital, even though doing so costs her wages.
During the coronavirus pandemic, she extended her efforts to arranging food for struggling families. Her own circumstances offered little financial security though.
Her father has died, and she lives with her mother. Her two elder sisters are married within the tea estate community, while her younger brother works for a private company in Dhaka.
But Khairun has continued supporting other workers despite the limitations of her own income.
“But over time, I have developed relationships with people outside the estate who were willing to contribute money or other assistance,” she told Waadaa, adding that those contacts allowed her to respond to emergencies that she could not finance herself.
Her involvement also brought her into contact with labour organisers and workers from other plantations. Today, when labour disputes arise at any of Habiganj's 24 tea estates, Khairun often travels to the affected plantation.
“I listen to workers' complaints and examine their circumstances,” Khairun told Waadaa, “And when necessary, I speak with estate management to take action,”
In June 2024, Khairun's standing among workers helped carry her into elected office.
She won the women's vice-chairman position in the upazila parishad election, moving from grassroots labour activism into local government. The position offered an opportunity to address workers' concerns through an elected institution rather than relying solely on personal networks and informal negotiations.
But her tenure was brief.
Following the change of government in August 2024, the authorities removed upazila vice-chairmen across the country, including Khairun. Her involvement with the tea estate community however continued.
Without an elected position, she returned to the same work that had established her reputation…responding to medical emergencies, arranging financial assistance and intervening in labour disputes.
“I feel this work of mine is important as estate hospitals may provide initial treatment, but patients requiring more advanced care must sometimes travel to government hospitals elsewhere,” Khairun told Waadaa.
“You have to understand that for workers with limited cash, even transport can become an obstacle,” she added.
At Chandpur Tea Estate, her work has earned recognition from management as well as workers.
Md Abul Kalam, the estate's manager, told Waadaa that Khairun had distinguished herself through her willingness to help colleagues.
“We appreciate Khairun Akter for the good work she does,” he said. “Although she is an ordinary worker, she works for the welfare of other workers. She stands beside them in good times and bad.”
Khairun still remains a tea worker, subject to the same daily wage system as the people she helps.
Thirteen years after she began, she is still giving up working days to accompany sick colleagues to hospital. The workers she helps receive treatment. She returns to the estate with less money in her pocket.
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