284 Adhyana yatra teams consisting of 1,438 leaders and cadres travelled on bicycles across the state covering all the 1,100 mandal headquarters, 134 municipal towns and 16 municipal corporations including Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation for full one week from 25th November 2009. All the full timers of the CITU including those working in state centre as well as in the districts were asked to participate in the yatras without any exception. 286 full timers and 1,152 part timers joined the Adhyayana Yatra teams. Working women full timers, part timers and activists participated in the Yatra in 11 districts, travelling by bicycles for the entire week along with the male comrades.
Preparations were made by the state committee of CITU for the effective organisation of the Yatra. Workshops were organised in all the districts. CITU activists from 528 mandals, 169 municipal corporation divisions and 92 municipal towns participated in these workshops. Following the workshops, committee meetings were held in 618 mandals and 72 municipal towns. More than 10 lakhs leaflets were distributed and press meets were held in around 400 centres in the state to give wide coverage about the Adhyayana Yatra.
The Yatra teams met thousands of workers across the state. The information about the conditions of the workers gathered in the Yatra were revealing and silenced the sceptics who doubted whether any information more than already known to the CITU activists could be collected through the Yatra. Of course they have once again established what the CITU has all along been asserting – that the policies of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation have engulfed the country and the state and are having devastating impact on the lives and livelihood of the workers. The study has also proved wrong the arguments of some that it is impossible to organise and bring the workers reeling under such miserable conditions into struggles.
It is known that 150 years back workers had to work from dawn to dusk. But who would imagine that this situation exists in our country in this first decade of the 21st century? But this was the situation in Entrepreneurial Documents Management System (EDMS) in Warangal. The 120 highly educated employees in this enterprise are engaged in digitalising the records of the Life Insurance Corporation of India. Some of these employees in EDMS are forced to work from 5.00 in the morning to 10.00 in the night. They are paid a monthly salary of Rs 2,000 – Rs 2,500! The employees have organised themselves against these exploitative conditions and went on strike since 7th November.
Another example of the workers’ revolt against exploitation is the spontaneous strike by the workers of Brandix Apparel India in Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Around 4,000 women work in this SEZ unit near Anakapalle. They are paid Rs 2,800 per month and find it almost impossible to have two square meals a day with the amount they get after deductions for bus passes, provident fund etc. Many of these women workers suffer from health hazards because of the bad working conditions in the factory. Two workers – Saana Durga aged 19 years and Kasi Lakshmi aged 21 years died due to lung disease within a span of a few days. This caused serious agitation among the workers who spontaneously stopped work. All the 4,000 women workers struck work and stopped production for two days. They resumed work only after a written commitment from the management. They were highly encouraged by the leaflet issued by the Visakhapatnam district committee of CITU supporting their demands.
The contract workers in different state government departments all over the state are not getting their wages since the last 3-4 months. The payment of bills for the mid day meal workers was pending for the last 5 months; they had to take huge loans to feed the school children. The ASHAs were not paid any remuneration for several months. The anganwadi workers were not getting the rent for the anganwadi centres; they had to face the wrath of the people who stopped sending their children to the anganwadi centres because of the bad quality of the nutritious food supplied to the centres; many anganwadi employees were being arbitrarily and unilaterally removed from service in the monthly village level review meetings.
It was found that in many villages the village servants were still being forced to work in the houses of the officers though this practice has come down to a large extent. Huge amounts of money of around Rs 25,000 – 30,000 were being demanded for compassionate appointments as village servants. This was particularly widely prevalent in Ranga Reddy district. Throughout the state, the village sarpanches were pilfering the grant provided by the state government to the village panchayat workers. The sweepers in schools were not being paid any wages but were given rice that was meant for mid day meals for the school children.
The home based workers were not getting loans from the banks as a result of which they had to depend on the microfinance institutions, which were extracting huge amounts as interest; they had no marketing facilities. The street vendors who sell vegetables and eatables by moving from village to village on cycles found themselves helpless and starving when they could not go to work due to illness or accidents.
The government was refusing to renew the licences of the auto drivers who could not pass 8th class. In Nagari municipal town of Chittoor district, the local municipal officials were collecting ten rupees daily per auto as parking fees.
In many factories in Medak, Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and other districts the amounts deducted from workers for provident fund, ESI etc were not deposited to the concerned accounts.
The simmering discontent among the workers was palpable during the Yatras. In several places, the Adhyayana Yatra teams tried to intervene in these issues and were able to provide some relief to the workers, which created confidence among them.
Soon after the completion of the yatras, the district committees of CITU conducted agitational programmes on the issues that came to the notice of the teams. Dharnas, picketings were held at the government offices. Memoranda were submitted to the concerned officials who held discussions in some places. These efforts helped in resolving some problems. Many of the problems centred round the pending wages in the government related sectors like ASHA, Mid day meal, anganwadi and contract employees etc. As the government revenues were affected because of the recession, the state government was finding it difficult to pay the wages and other dues to these workers.
During the yatras, the teams identified 4,161 active workers all over the state who could possibly be developed as union organisers. The district committees of CITU were asked to conduct training programmes and classes for them. Till now, two day classes were held in 9 districts, in which 1,215 of these workers participated. Other districts are planning to hold classes.
Membership campaign also followed the Yatra. Membership enrolment as a campaign was planned in 8 districts. The Adhyana Yatra also provided an opportunity to the district committees to form scores of new unions. Hyderabad city committee alone has reported that it would be able to form more than 100 new unions. The Adhyana Yatra provided a very rich experience to the Andhra Pradesh state committee of CITU in the fields of agitation, struggle, propaganda and organisation.
(The Working Class)
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