The tea workers demanded Tk 30,000 in arrears for 20 months in line with the hiked wages that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked tea garden owners to pay in August last year
"Today, I protest so that I don't die out of hunger. It's a protest for our lives, our survival and our rights." This was what Agni Banik, a permanent tea worker based in Moulvibazar, had to say before the countrywide protest was called off, after the prime minister's directive to raise their daily wage from Tk 120 to Tk 145.