ArticleGlobal mental health (Cambridge, England)2026
Counting pennies, carrying stress: The mental health impact of low wages on tea garden workers in Sylhet and Moulvibazar.
Article in Global mental health (Cambridge, England), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
This qualitative study explores how wage and payment practices inflict both economic hardship and psychological distress among tea garden workers in Sylhet and Moulvibazar. Using an interpretivist approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 purposively sampled workers in Sylhet. Transcripts in Bengali and the local Sylheti dialect were evaluated using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings reveal six key themes centered on the psychological impacts of wage insufficiency, unpredictable payment schedules, disproportionate quota penalties, and opaque deductions. Participants identified low base wages as the primary driver of chronic food insecurity and debt cycles. Furthermore, systemic issues like delayed payments, poor-quality rations, and gendered care burdens severely exacerbated their acute stress. Workers expressed their psychological suffering through culturally encoded idioms such as tension, chinta (worry), and khitkhite (irritability). Ultimately, the study highlights that workers' top priorities for mitigating distress include fair and sufficient wages, transparent payment systems, food security, and accessible healthcare. These findings emphasize that improving mental well-being in this vulnerable population requires systemic reforms in payment governance.
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