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Magazine
Triumph of labour
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The right to life and livelihood is the central issue with unorganised workers as closures and retrenchments have become the order of the day. R. GEETHA writes on a march by such workers, earlier this year.
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THE padayatra of unorganised workers started from Kanyakumari on March 8, International Working Women's Day and reached Chennai and ended with a mass rally on May Day in the Marina.
The padayatra was very lively with representatives of construction workers, domestic workers, tailors, agricultural workers, handicrafts people, vendors and cobblers walking for nearly 800 km across Nagarkoil, Tirunelveli, Kovilpatti, Virudhunagar, Madurai, Viralimalai, Tiruchi, Perambalur, Thozhudur, Vizhupuram, Pondicherry and Chengalpet. All along the way various groups and organisations of unorganised workers provided food, a place to rest and also participated in the yatra. Street meetings and cultural activities as well as hall meetings attracted workers, traders and the general public who interacted with the participants and contributed towards their mission. Drawing inspiration from the Sarvodaya movement, it was a veritable Solidarity March organised by the Joint Action Committee of Unorganised Workers.
Poet Bharathi sang about joyful independence thus:
We'll worship agriculture and industry
And denigrate those who eat and laze around.
But today due to globalisation policies, farming and industry are being destroyed while everything foreign — capital, technology and goods — is coming in like a flood in the name of "reforms". In the era of globalisation, right to life and livelihood has become the central issue not only for organised sector workers, but more so with the unorganised workers, since the retrenchments are invisible and no compensation is provided.
We are shocked by the suicides of farmers and handloom workers who have lost their livelihood. Tamil Nadu must be ashamed that 300 jewel-making workers committed suicide due to mechanisation and job losses in Coimbatore. The padayatra was undertaken to sow seeds of concern among the Tamils over the situation of unorganised workers not only in Coimbatore, but throughout Tamil Nadu.
Who are organised workers? They are those involved in producing for basic human needs — food, clothing and shelter — and are also involved in distributing the goods by employing daily wage labourers and self-employed persons.
The number of unorganised workers, as well as their percentage, has increased over the past two decades, while the proportion of organised work force is decreasing. Now nearly 92 per cent of the workers belong to the unorganised sectors and the remaining is organised labour.
The situation of unorganised workers has not improved since Independence. Construction workers and other unorganised workers in agriculture and segments like street vending, rice mill, forest, handloom and powerloom, fishing, gem-cutting and sugarcane-cutting face unprotected work with no guarantee of employment. They work for low wages without medical benefit.
Due to globalisation, closures and large-scale retrenchments are taking place. Contract and apprentice systems of employment have also increased in the organised sector.
Machines for digging ponds, ready mix concrete for roof, machines for laying and even sweeping of roads, foreign vessels in trawling, transplanting and harvesting machines in agriculture have led to a drastic decrease in rural and urban employment in the unorganised sector.
Slum evictions, removal of street vendors, prawn farming, import policies affecting tea, coconut, rubber closures, privatisation, destruction of agriculture and industry, the list is endless. In the gem-cutting industry, due to the import of stones, many thousands of employed women are threatened with joblessness.
Due to rural unemployment and no alternatives in urban areas, people are driven to penury. Central and State Governments have to take urgent steps to stop the domination of foreign companies and loss of employment and livelihood of workers.
It has been estimated that in construction, only one in 20 would be the labour requirement and women will be completely out of the sector, due to globalisation.
In our country, during times of drought or industrial retrenchments, construction was the alternative. If mechanisation dominates, where will people go for employment? Employment, social security, equal rights, prohibition are all listed in Directive Principles of State Policy in our Constitution, unimplemented even after 50 years of Independence. In the name of "increasing Foreign Direct Investment," lands have been allotted and tax holidays and other concessions have been provided by the government. But the self-employed vendors on the roadside are being driven out. Education, health and transport are being privatised; patent act amended to aid bio piracy. Subsidies for agriculture, public distribution, monsoon allowances for fisher people, welfare boards of unorganised workers have been stopped. How can external forces cause a ban on subsidies to the poor in the country? Is it not negation of the dreams of our freedom fighters who wanted to banish poverty through planned economy? Is it not total domination of foreign capital, WTO, WB, IMF in effect neo-colonisation resulting in loss of livelihood and abetted by our present day politicians?
The organised labour had struggled in the last 100 years, and hundreds of legislations have been passed in their favour. Laws such as Minimum Wages Act, Contract Labour Act, Child Labour Act, Equal remuneration Act are constantly violated. Minimum wages are not paid in agriculture and constructions (not even government constructions) and most of the segments in unorganised sector.
Construction workers united beyond caste, religion and political affiliation and struggled since 1979 to get the TN Manual Workers Act passed in 1982. Due to the movement, TN Construction Workers Welfare Board was formed in 1995, initially in three cities and later extended to the whole State in 1996. Starting with accident relief, benefits such as relief for natural death, maternity assistance, education and marriage assistance were implemented. In 1999, a welfare board was created for 54 categories of unorganised labour. In 2000, separate welfare boards were formed for handicrafts, artists, agricultural workers, weavers, tailors, tree climbers, dhobis, hairdressers, chapel makers and auto workers. The scheme for construction workers was extended. In 2001, there was no budgetary allotment, so no cash benefits were given and registration was stopped.
The Tamil Nadu Manual Workers Act provides for regulation of employment and wages and provision for social security and welfare measures through welfare boards. But the construction workers' welfare scheme merely provides for cash benefits. ESI and crèches, in the original scheme, have not been implemented. However, there are many problems in the implementation of cash benefits. Delay for several months, rejection of government assistant surgeon's certificate for permanent disability and consequent denial of compensation to accident victims have become commonplace. Women workers, to avail benefits, have to produce a certificate from their respective husbands that they are not registered with the welfare board.
The maternity benefit provided by the board is given only when the child is one-year-old. Crèches must be provided in workplace and living areas so that the present predicament of sibling care — child labour — undergoes a radical change. For migrant workers, special attention must be given to housing, ration card, crèche and education of children. The sexual exploitation faced by women workers is endless.
In contravention of the norm for pension, being half the monthly income, construction workers are sought to be paid a pittance of Rs.200. Monsoon allowance, ESI and housing are not provided for the construction workers. Though the central levy is one per cent, in Tamil Nadu 0.3 per cent is collected and even in that Central government constructions are left out. A system of levy must be evolved in all occupations, and in constructions two per cent levy must be collected. Decentralisation of disbursal of cash benefits and monthly meetings at the district level of various Welfare Boards will improve the situation for workers.
For the sugarcane cutting workers, direct payment of wages, ESI and PF by the sugar mill will redress the grievances. The low-paid temporary sweepers employed by local bodies and the police department need to be uplifted through regularisation, provision of maternity benefit, PF etc. The protective laws for beedi workers need to be strictly implemented, while women workers must be provided with minimum wages PF and a logbook in their names. The cash benefits under the welfare scheme need to be hiked.
In Pondicherry, Delhi and all other States, in spite of the struggle of construction workers, the Central Acts for construction workers are yet to be implemented.
If slave conditions need to change, human labour, needs and feelings of manual workers need to be respected.
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