Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
The introduction of tea plantations was a colonial capitalist venture in eastern India. The tea plantations turned into social enclaves and hotspots of labour migration. The tribal labourers had to work in a bondage labour system with low wages, strict surveillance and harsh working conditions. The Chargola Exodus of 1921 was one of the first organized and articulated labour protests against colonial oppression and the bondage labour system in tea plantations. The plantation labourers revolted against the colonial oppression and decided to return to their homeland to quit from bondage system in the tea plantations. This article examines the changes and continuity in the tea plantations in the last hundred years since the Chargola Exodus. It argues the bondage labour system can still be sensed as the colonial structure in the plantations remained unchanged. However, the forms of labour bondage have been changed, and it has become ‘unannounced’. Therefore, the servitude of the labourers in the tea plantations has continued since the colonial period, even after the independence of the country. At present, the tribal communities in the tea plantations are living in extreme poverty, chronic hunger, low literacy, unsanitary living conditions and poor health status. The tea plantations have turned into a hotspot of human trafficking, forced out-migration and hunger deaths.

Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Ahead of Print.
This study examines the level of access and utilization of maternal care health services among different socially disadvantaged groups in India. The study uses the data from the National Family Health Survey conducted in 2015–2016. We have used descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis to assess the trends and prevalence of maternal healthcare services among different social groups. Using logistic regression, we have estimated the association of different socio-economic variables on maternal healthcare services among different socially disadvantaged groups in India. The results suggest tremendous inequality in access to maternal healthcare services among socially disadvantaged groups in India. It was found that several factors such as women’s education, working status, household wealth quintile and mass media exposure significantly impact access and utilization of maternal healthcare services among various socially disadvantaged groups. In addition, the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe women are subjected to socio-economic discrimination at multiple levels, and their maternal healthcare situation remains highly fragile. The social identity and caste-based socio-economic inequalities remain a major challenge in India to assure universal access to maternal healthcare services.