Birtamode, Dec. 1 -- Every morning, Ram Prasad Kheruwal leaves home and trundles off to work on his vintage bicycle, two pots full of sloshing water tied on either side of the rear wheel.

He negotiates the potholed roads to the tea plantation where women workers are picking tea leaves. His job is to deliver drinking water to the tea pickers, a position he has held for the last seven years since he retired.

Kheruwal, now 62 years old, used to be a tea worker himself. He grew up in a poor family, and lives in a tiny room provided by his company Budhkaran Tea Estate in Bhadrapur Municipality-7.

He makes Rs435 a day, which he says is not enough to pay for his household expenses. "We don't have our own house," he said.

Kheruwal and his wif...