India, Sept. 3 -- In the misty highlands of Nuwara Eliya, where generations of estate workers have bent over tea bushes from dawn to dusk, a quiet revolution is taking root. A single machine, placed in the hands of a tea plucker, is rewriting decades old rules about what a day's labour can earn, and who gets to earn it.

Berendina Development Services (Guarantee) Limited (BDS) is a Sri Lanka based non profit, community development organization dedicated to poverty alleviation, financial inclusion and sustainable livelihood enhancement, has spent years standing shoulder to shoulder with estate communities. BDS latest intervention, a bold push to mechanize tea plucking, is now delivering results that go far beyond the tea bush: rising incom...