On August 31, 2025, the Reliant Women Development Organization (RWDO) held the closing meeting of its EU-funded and Oxfam-supported project at the Sylhet Sadar Upazila Auditorium, aimed at ensuring the rights of women tea workers, improving garden facilities, and enhancing quality of life. The project, launched in July 2024 across six tea gardens in Sylhet, engaged 2,350 workers, including 600 women leaders and 525 housewives.
Women tea workers shared how the initiative has helped them learn to resist injustice, prevent child marriage, and demand their rights directly from Panchayats or garden managers. “We have now learned to protest against injustice. If there is any child marriage in the garden, we stop it,” said Sabita Lohar of Lakkatura Tea Garden. Community facilitators added that through the project, many women accessed widow allowances, corrected NID information, and supported others in navigating government services.
The event was presided over by RWDO Vice Chairman Samik Shahid Jahan and moderated by Project Coordinator Md. Zahidul Islam Rashid, with officials from social services, education, labor, and NGO representatives in attendance. Speakers noted that tea workers—especially women—are now more informed about wages, working hours, and state benefits, and better equipped to claim their rights.
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