The Morehead-Cain

The interviews we conducted were with various government offices in Kota regarding the status of children in the mining industry. While we were able to gain little factual information, what we were supplied with is chai tea from all but two of the nine agencies we visited over the course of two days of our interviews. I soon began to recognize the connections that could be drawn between each of the offices and the qualities of their tea.

Without further ado, I give you the Indian Government Tea Test…

The District Collector, basically the guy in charge of the county, was the first stop and also the first to not offer us chai. Much like his lack of hospitality, he seemed to know very little about the mining industry in his district, despite his nearly perfect English.

Next up was the State Department of Labor; served in tiny cups, the tea was absolutely delicious and quite sweet- much like the fantastic employees we spoke with for over an hour (with the help of our translator, of course). Unfortunately their relevant information was directly proportional to the size of their cups.

The Central (National) Department of labor was quite bitter—in both staffing and quality of tea.

The Department of Education actually served us coffee rather than tea. The bold taste matched the boldness of the official we spoke with—easily the largest stature I have seen on an Indian man in the entire month I have been here.

Unfortunately, the serving was about the size of a shot glass and left us wanting more, just as a quick dismissal by an overbooked Education Officer left us with many unanswered questions.

The Chief Medical Health Officer provided what we have ranked as the best chai of all the offices, as well as the seemingly most competent official.

The Department of Women and Children served us no tea and gave us no information.

The Department of Mines supplied average chai, but their officials were quite well informed. Unfortunately their expertise, though as solid as the crackers they served us with the tea (the only office to do so), did not extend to our field and they pointed us to the office of their superior.

The Senior Labour Official was an out and out liar about the status of child labour in his district. He also did not ever provide the tea that he offered.

The final stop was at an actual mine, in which we were served our scalding hot tea no frills in small plastic cups, reflecting the nature of the industry itself.