|
| NREGS workers on trade union track for empowerment |
| Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi Mar 04, 2010, 00:56 IST |
|
Villagers of Bajesar, Nimbada and Dungla — the three blocks in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan — are nothing like what job-card holders under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are elsewhere. They are what job-card holders may look like in 2015 — unionised purely asMGNREGS workers.
Rojgar Guarantee Majdoor Union of Chittorgarh, registered under the Trade Union Act, has 1,500 members, and has collected Rs 7,000 as registration fee from people in 165 villages.
Whether this has guaranteed employment is yet to be verified, but what is known is that formation of trade unions by the MGNREGS workers and by the non-government organisations (NGO) for rural employment workers is a trend spreading through the country.
Aruna Roy, whose Majdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan has led many struggles, is on her way to registering three unions under the Trade Union Act. The first one would come up in Rajsamand district in March.
Says Nikhil De, Roy’s associate, “I believe unions in MGNREGS would be a strong force in the days to come to empower workers. On the other side, the labour offices and courts would have to be strengthened to complement this move.”
The Paschim Bengal Khet Majdoor Samiti (PBKMS), which was at the head of the Singur agitation in Bengal claims to have increased its membership considerably. “It was 55,000 last year. This year, it is 60,000,” says Anuradha Talwar, who leads the samiti.
Talwar adds the average number of days logged by the workers has also increased for members of the unions. “There are dharnas at every point, from demanding receipts for applications, to work allotment, to wage payment. The MGNREGS has kept the unions linked to the grassroots and this has invigorated them,” she adds.
Talwar’s union is fighting a case in the Calcutta High Court over payment of allowance to 6,000 jobless people and has raked up the issue of compensation for delayed pay under the Payment of Wages Act.
The government has increased minimum wages for MGNREGS to Rs 100 from Rs 81. Now the union is seeking arrears of Rs 146 crore, which the state government is reluctant to pay. In some cases, the MGNREGS unions have had their base in existing unions. In Chittorgarh villagers were unionised as mine workers who established their rights with limestone mine owners.
There are unions which have dedicated themselves to MGNREGS in Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Many are reincarnations of existing bodies of agricultural workers ‘ unions or trade unions, while the rest are part of the New Trade Union Initiative or National Agricultural Workers Federations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Read Business news in |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Content Guide
