Vahdam Teas Partners With Byju’s To Tutor Children Of Tea Estate Workers; Pilot Launched In Darjeeling

BENGALURU: Global direct-to-consumer tea brand Vahdam Teas has partnered education technology startup Byju’s to digitally tutor less privileged children of tea estate workers from about ten tea estates in Darjeeling. By the end of the academic year, the partnership plans to expand to 20 tea estates and cover about 50,000 children across tea-growing regions in India. The five-year-old homegrown tea brand, popularised by international celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Mariah Carey, launched the social initiative in 2018, where it earmarked minimum 1% of its revenues for the education of tea-estate workers’ children. India is the largest consumer of tea, accounting for nearly 30% of global tea production. According to experts, the country consumes tea ten times more than coffee. The premium tea startup added that tea is the second largest employer of organised labour only after railways providing direct employment to approximately 1 million, of whom 51% are women. About 10 million people derive their livelihood from tea through forward and backward linkages.