Photo Courtesy: nenow
Guwahati: Illegal gambling, cockfighting, and bootleg liquor are tearing through the tea estates of Doomdooma. The Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) Doomdooma Branch Committee delivered a formal memorandum to Co-District Commissioner Nuzhat Nasreen on November 12, 2026. The document demands an immediate ban on these activities and unauthorized cinema screenings. It warns that ignoring the social decay will force the group to launch protests.
President Irot Tati and secretary Joygeswar Nanda signed the plea. They argue these vices drain family wages, fuel domestic abuse, and drive students out of classrooms. One anonymous note in the memorandum reads, "Workers spend their entire week’s wages in one night of juwa and chulai."
The impact hits youth hard. A fifteen-year-old student near Hansara dropped out of school after a fifty-rupee bet turned into a gambling addiction. Local youth workers note a dark trend. Boys quit school for daily-wage labor or petty crime while narcotics appear at social gatherings. Girls face different traps. Early marriage and motherhood often replace schooling as families collapse under financial strain. One student in Class X noted the hostile environment, saying, "The noise, the smell of liquor, the boys calling out. My mother tells me not to look."
The ATTSA links this breakdown to systemic poverty. They point to a lack of land rights and low wages as root causes for this widespread desperation. A senior functionary warned that the community is losing its next generation. While the administration has occasionally raided gambling dens elsewhere in Assam, residents in Doomdooma complain that enforcement is inconsistent. Unauthorized cinema screenings and liquor sales continue unabated. The union insists that the future of the tea tribes depends on breaking this cycle of addiction and neglect.
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