Across India, people enjoy a cup of tea in the morning and it is offered to guests, but in tea gardens of the North East there are workers and their families who depend on a meagre cash wage of 126 to 176 rupees a day, much lower than the minimum wage mandated by law. In addition, they live in appalling conditions with poor access to basic services like water, health and sanitation, which expose them to malnutrition, disease, and preventable deaths. These conditions are common across most tea plantations and result in India’s highest maternal mortality rate and one of the highest rates of infant mortality.