FOOD FOR WORK IN MIRZAPUR, UP

Party Has To Step Up Vigil To Get Norms Respected

Subhashini Ali Sahgal

MIRZAPUR is a very backward and drought prone district in eastern Uttar Pradesh. It is one of the 150 districts in which the centrally funded and designed FFWP (Food for Work Programme) is being implemented. As part of the CPI(M)’s campaign to study the actual working of the programme at the work-site level and to organise campaigns and struggles in order to removed anomalies and corrupt or unfair practices, wherever these are found to exist, Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, CPI(M) district secretary Pyarelal Jaiswal, district committee member Suresh, AIDWA district secretary Chinta, Arvind and I visited a number of work-sites in Patehara and Rajgarh  blocks of the district on May 6 and 7.  Altogether, we met and spoke to more than 600 people in 15 villages of the district.  All of them were either working on these sites or had worked on them, or were trying to get work there.

GUIDELINES BEING FLOUTED

While many of the contraventions of the central guidelines that had been noted in Maharashtra were also to be seen in Mirzapur, there is one major difference. It is that work was being carried out on all the work-sites we visited, and had been going on for a month is some places, for two weeks in others and for two months in a few. On all the work-sites we visited, large ponds (pokhars) are being widened and deepened for the purpose of water conservation. The district magistrate, whom we met at the end of our visit, informed us that a total of about Rs 18 crore in rice and cash has been received by him for the financial year 2004-05 (from October 2004 to March 2005). Since the money was received only at the beginning of this year, the work is being carried over into the next financial year. A total of 247 projects --- all of them connected with water conservation, i e improving and constructing ponds and check-dams --- have been started with these funds. Less than half have been completed. More than 25,000 people have been given work on each working day and the number of working days ranges from 2 to 6 weeks on each work-site. This means that assets of crucial importance in the lives of people living in areas where drought is a harsh reality are being created through the back-breaking toil of those who have been its worst victims. Also, despite late payments and unsanctioned deductions, thousands of hungry people, desperate for work, have been able to access some employment in the leanest period in the year.

On the first day of our visit, we visited several work-sites in Patehra block and also met many people in the villages either where these were located or in their vicinity. Unfortunately, many of the central guidelines are being flouted in a flagrant manner. The shortcomings of the programme, which have been pointed out in the report from Maharashtra, are only too visible here --- very harsh measurement of what constitutes a day’s work, removing the mud from one cubic metre and the complete disregard paid to the fact that the removal of the mud which is done almost completely by women is not treated as a work process at all and therefore receives no wage. In Mirzapur, a day’s work is calculated on the digging of a ditch which is known as a khanti and is approximately equal to one cubic metre. The minimum wage payable for this is 58 a day to be paid with 5 kg of rice and Rs 27.25. 

In this block, we talked to people living in and around Padariyan Kalan, Padariyan Khurd, Chiksi Bandha and Kakrad where work is going on. The first thing we learned was that in all these places, the work is being carried out through contractors, which is completely banned by the guidelines. In one place, the contractor (Raju Singh is a local strongman with political links, and in another place he (Prem Shankar) is the son of local BSP MP, Lalchand Kol. 

WORKERS NOT BEING PAID

On the Kakrad work-site, we met a labourer, Pancham Kol who told us that all the workers come from village Lalapur, 3 km away. When we asked him why the local people were not working there, he said they had been working there earlier but then they had left the site. At a little distance from the site, we met a group of women – Gita, Amravati, Isravati and Chamelia – who live in the Musahar Tola in Kakrad. They were returning from the block where they had gone to withdraw some money from their SHG savings. In fact, their SHG had been wound up because they were not in a position to make their contributions anymore. They said, “What savings can we have when we have no money to eat?” They told us that all of them had been working with their menfolk in Kakrad for about a month but had not been paid their wages. Chamelia, a widow, used to take her young son and daughter with her to work. She used to do the digging herself while they carried the mud away. All of them had been given only 50 -- 60 kg of rice on account. As a result, they had all left the work-site when they got tired of waiting to be paid. They said they had been promised a payment of 20 per day, which is itself in gross violation of the guidelines.

In Padariyan Kalan, we met a large number of workers who said they had been working on the site for more than a month. They said they were not being paid their dues every week but received some cash and rice from time to time. They were not very sure of the exact rate that they should be getting. They said between 100 and 150 people were working every day and some were coming from nearby villages also. In this village, we also met Harichand Musahar who complained that the only land he owned --- about 18 to 20 biswas --- had been included in the pond that was being dug at Padariya Khurd and that he had received no compensation.

We met villagers in Shehra and Bhamani Thapeda that are adjacent to Padariya Khurd and Chiksi Bandha. Kalavati, who had worked in Padariya Khurd for 2 months, said she had received only Rs 250 so far. Balram, who had worked for 14 days, had also received the same amount. They said they had been told that they would be paid at the rate of 5 kg of rice and Rs 23 per day.

There are a large number of CPI(M) supporters in these villages. Hundreds of them (mostly women who are AIDWA members) gathered and complained that the contractor had told them that no Red Flag supporters would be given work because they would only create trouble and demand proper payment of wages. Gulabi Devi of Shehra said she had told him: Chatni roti khaab baki lal jhanda na chhodab (I will survive on bread and chutney but I will not give up my red flag).

WORKERS’ TRAVAILS

At Bhaavan situated at a crossroads in Rajgarh block, we met people from several villages who worked at sites in the area. They have to walk long distances to get to work and were angry that there was no work-site in the immediate vicinity. A group of women --- Shanti, Dhanpati (a widow), Phuari (her husband is away) and Shanti --- told us that they go to Talagaon to work. Here they are told that they would be paid only Rs 40 a day --- take it or leave it. Dhanpati and Phuari work as a pair (jodi), doing both the digging and throwing, and can only finish half a khanti after 10 hours of hard labour. Dev Narain, an old man, said he also went to work and had to beg others to attach him to their group.

Next we visited Bhagaura village in Rajgarh district. Mithai Lal, a CPI(M) member, is the pradhan (headman) of this village. He said he had had to agitate a lot to get a work-site located in his village. He spent the whole day supervising the work and also ensured that all the workers were paid on time. As a result of his efforts, they were being paid 8 kg of rice and the balance in cash. We found that the ground of the pond was very hard and in fact consisted of pebbles (maurang, bajri) and stones, with no mud at all. Mithai Lal had not been informed of the fact that this kind of digging should be paid at a rate Rs 4 higher. He was also unaware of the fact that an additional Rs 4 should be paid for lifting the mud and throwing it out. (While these facts were not known anywhere we went, it is a telling fact that even a pradhan, so involved and so committed to helping the workers, was not given by the BDO and other officials the information to which he was entitled). As a result, the labourers, even though they were being paid on time, complained bitterly of the punishing and back-breaking work that they had to do. 

On May 7, we went straight to Devpura village in Rajgarh block. Here we found that the Zilla Parishad (ZP) had got dug a pond through a contractor who was the chairperson Prabhavati’s brother. We had to go through the village to the Chamrauti to meet the men and women who had worked there and also at the FFWP site, another larger pond in the same village. There are about 300 families in this hamlet --- all landless dalits who are completely dependent on this kind of work for their existence. We sat and talked to several men and women who had worked on both the sites. They said they had not been paid for the ZP work; it was complete but the contractor had “run away.” The women, especially, were distraught and two of them said they had walked 15 kilometres to the block and back to try and get someone to help them get their dues.

THE POOR WORK & THE RICH BENEFIT

As far as the FFWP work was concerned, Lakshman, Allu, Gopu, Sanjay and many others said this work was done in two stages. They had been paid for the first stage at Rs 58 per day but, when they gave us the details of the payment it was 5 kg of rice and Rs 23 only. As far as the second stage was concerned, they had not been paid in full though the work had been completed. While they had worked for about 30 days, they had received rice on account and had been told that they would receive 9 kg of rice per day worked and the balance in cash. We asked them who would benefit from the pond when it filled with water. They said only the upper caste landowners would benefit. They would not be allowed to bathe there or use the water for their animals. They said that already the filth from the main village was being drained into the pond so that the water would be unfit for bathing and could be used only for irrigating “their” fields.

From Devpura, we went straight to the block office where we met the BDO, one Kannaujia. Some of his subordinates were also present at the meeting. There was utter confusion among them about the wage rate payable. At first one of them insisted that the cash component was Rs 25. Finally, it was decided that it was actually Rs 27.25. When we asked the BDO about the additional payments that could be made for hard/stony soil and lifting, he seemed unaware of these provisions. After the guidelines were checked, he was convinced that an additional Rs 8 per khanti could indeed be paid. He told us that payments were being delayed because the Societies only made disbursements twice a week and the number of entitled people was huge. But he assured us that he would see to it that all dues were cleared in a week and also that the ZP work was paid for by the contractor concerned.

We then visited the site in Nadihar village. Here there was a board on which the wages to be paid were clearly mentioned. Here we met 3 people who work together --- Budhan, her husband Lalman, and his father Shivnath. They are dalits who own 2 bighas of land which is lying uncultivated because of the drought. (He has received a cheque of Rs 60 as drought relief!) They have been working for about a month and manage to dig one khanti with great difficulty. For their work, they have so far received Rs 171 (after a lot of pleading) and 14 quintals of rice. We asked them if they would benefit from the water in the pond when it filled up.  Shivnath pointed to his land that could be seen from the site. He said, “You can see the fields of the big people between my land and the pond. They will see to it that all the water goes to their fields and will not allow me to take any. But yes, at least for a few months we will all have water to bathe in and to bathe our animals in.”

THE PARTY’S RESPONSIBILITY

The last village we visited was Golhanpur, situated on top of forbidding, stony heights, a long walk from the block office. Here, workers from far off villages, in addition to the locals, are digging a very large pond. We found about 50 workers from Matihani, which is about 10 km away. Along with their wives, they stay near the site and visit their homes only once a fortnight or so. Altogether, between 150 – 200 people are working here every day and the work has been going on for about one month and a half. The pradhan, Ramashankar Singh (an independent), said he had made a lot of effort to get this project sanctioned for his village and he was ensuring prompt and correct payment. He also said that 9 kg of rice per day would be paid along with the balance in cash. He knew that the minimum wage was Rs 58 but had also heard that something more could be paid for rocky soil. He was unaware of the provision for payment for lifting and throwing of mud. The workers said they had been paid 4 or 5 times and were confident of getting their full due.  They worked in groups for about 10 to 12 hours a day, were able to fulfil the norm and even exceed it inspite of the rocky soil. For example, Gulab Singh worked with a group of 17 people, had dug 230 khantis in one month and two days, and received 19 quintals of rice and Rs 2000. The pradhan assured us that to ensure that the additional Rs 8 per khanti were paid to the workers here.

After this we met the district magistrate, U C Mittal, who gave us a patient and sympathetic hearing. He gave us some details about the programme and assured us that he would take whatever remedial action was needed as far as payments were concerned. Since the soil in both the blocks we visited is gravelly and stony, he said he would get the wages enhanced as per the guidelines. He also said he would invite the CPI(M) district secretary to the monitoring committee meetings.

The experience we gained underlines the urgency of pressurising the central government to suitably amend the guidelines so that work norms take into account the real nature of the work done. At the same time, CPI(M) units in all the districts concerned must take up the work of inspecting FFWP sites and organise campaigns and struggles not only to make the workers aware of their rights but also to ensure that they are respected.