People's Democracy

MAHARASHTRA NEWSLETTER

Reception Committee For 31st All India Conference of Kisan Sabha

P R Krishnan

A broad reception committee, comprising of 501 members, was formed for conducting the 31st national conference of the All India Kisan Sabha scheduled to be held on January 28-31, 2006 at Nasik. The committee shall be chaired by a prominent progressive advocate of Nasik, Jayant Jaybhave who has recently been elected to the Maharashtra and Goa Bar Council. Kisan Gujar, AIKS Nasik district secretary has been elected general secretary of the committee. Another leading AIKS activist Bhikha Raut is the treasurer. Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, renowned journalist P Sainath and other leading figures are amongst the vice presidents of the reception committee.

The reception committee was formed at a meeting held at the Comrade Nana Malusare Memorial Hall in CITU Kamgar Bhawan at Khutwad Nagar in Nasik on September 10. It was presided over by Jiva Pandu Gavit, CPI(M) MLA, who is the president of Maharashtra State Kisan Sabha. Dr Ashok Dhawale, general secretary of the state Kisan Sabha made the introductory speech and explained the importance of the national conference of the Kisan Sabha being held in the context of the present political situation. S Ramachandran Pillai, the national president of All India Kisan Sabha was present and guided the deliberations of the meeting. The gathering in the meeting comprised a large cross section of the people.

In his brief speech, S R Pillai referred to the agrarian crisis faced by the country and the role of the Kisan Sabha in the struggle against the policies leading to this crisis. He recalled how the Kisan Sabha, under the leadership of stalwarts like P Sundarayya, A K Gopalan, E M S Namboodiripad, Hare Krishna Konar, Benoy Krishna Choudhary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Shamrao and Godavari Parulekar, and Nana Patil had conducted countrywide struggles for land reforms and remunerative prices for agricultural produce. He explained how Kisan Sabha even today is in the forefront of waging bitter struggles against the new imperialist onslaught on Indian agriculture. He hoped that the coming 31st all India conference of Kisan Sabha in Nasik will go a long way in helping advance the democratic, Left movement in the state and in the country.

The meeting was greeted amongst others by Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, P R Menon, general secretary, NRMU, Dr D L Karad, state secretary of CITU and leader of several unions in Nasik, Krishna Khopkar, vice president of state Kisan Sabha, L B Dhangar, Raja Ozare, MLA, Mariam Dhawale of AIDWA, Sunil Malusare of DYFI, Sridhar Deshpande, Nasik City Secretary of CPI(M). K K Pawar, president of Nasik Zilla Parishad, P R Krishnan, state secretary of CITU, and many others. It was also decided in the meeting that the Maharashtra state office bearers of AIKS, CITU, AIAWU, AIDWA, DYFI and SFI and other left and democratic organisations will be the office-bearers of the reception committee.

The All India Kisan Sabha has a membership of 1.88 crore spread across the country. This is one of the biggest organisations of the farmers and tillers of the land all over the world. It has a fairly good following in Maharashtra, with a membership approaching 2 lakh. Two of the past presidents of this premier organisation belonged to Maharashtra, namely, the revolutionary leader Krantishimha Nana Patil and the leader of the Adivasi revolt, Godavari Parulekar. Maharashtra has also had the honour of once holding the all India conference at Dahanu in Thane district in the year 1955. In the context of the neo-liberal industrial and agricultural policies of globalisation being followed by the UPA government at the centre and the INC-NCP coalition government in Maharashtra, the All India Kisan Sabha national conference assumes added importance.

Though the state has been severely hit by unprecedented floods in July and during the subsequent period, the state Kisan Sabha, in its extended council meeting attended by S R Pillai on September 10-11, has chalked out a programme of vigorous campaign for the success of the all India conference.

STATE CONVENTION OF DOMESTIC WORKERS HELD IN PUNE

PUNE witnessed a mammoth rally of domestic workers, mainly women, which culminated in a state convention of domestic workers. This convention, held at Ganesh Kala Krida Manch near Nehru Stadium in Pune on August 27, was significant for the massive mobilisation of domestic workers ever in this city. The hall with a seating capacity of 5000 people became insufficient to seat all the participants and many women had to sit in the passages and stand outside to listen to the speeches of the leaders. The participants came from far off villages of different districts with breast feeding children’s in their arms. By 12 noon the hall began overflowing.

An overwhelming majority of these women workers have been forced to take up domestic work as their husbands and other wage-earners in the families became unemployed as a result of closure of industries, retrenchment, VRS –– all arising from the ruinous globalisation policies being pursued by the central government and the Maharashtra state government.

The CITU and the All India Democratic Women Association (AIDWA) jointly organised this convention. It may be noted here that nearly 30,000 domestic workers have enrolled as members of CITU in Maharashtra during the last three years with majority of them coming from Pune, Solapur and Nasik districts.Among the vast gathering were also women engaged in light construction work, home-based activities like making of sweets, papads, beedies, colouring of bangles, vegetable selling, garlands making etc. Many of them were migrants from villages of neighbouring districts, forced to leave their homes because of the widespread agrarian distress caused by liberalisation policies.

Inaugurating the convention, CPI(M) Poilt Bureau member Brinda Karat lambasted the central and state governments for pursuing economic policies which were increasing the misery of the poor. “An overall study conducted by the AIDWA about the plight of women in India shows that a vast majority of the women now working as domestic workers are victims of the World Bank-IMF-WTO dictated economic and industrial policies. The large-scale closure of industries in cities and towns has made wage-earners in the families unemployed, forcing women to take up household works”, she said.

Brinda Karat pointed out that as a result of liberalisation policies being extended to agricultural front, the marginal farmers and agricultural workers have also become unproductive and jobless in villages, resulting in their large-scale migration to cities and towns. Many women in search of livelihood get employed as domestic servants and their husbands get engaged in small, pity and miscellaneous work in the unorganised sector. She expressed concern at lack of proper wages, absence of rules or regulations for owners employing the domestic workers.  She appealed to the housewives in the families which employ these workers to treat them with the dignity they deserve.

Brinda Karat pointed out that in Andhra Pradesh and in Karnataka the state governments were forced to bring legislations fixing minimum wages for domestic workers after AIDWA and CITU took up their cause through struggles. She said the UPA government was forced by the Left parties to bring legislation for the unorganised sector workers, under the purview of which the domestic workers also come. She stressed the need to see that this legislation is effectively implemented in the country.

CITU national secretary and convenor of Working Women’s Coordination Committee K Hemalata in her speech assured that the CITU will see to it that the law passed by the parliament in respect of unorganised sector workers will be implemented and enforced throughout the country. CITU Maharashtra unit vice president Suman Sansgiri presided over the meeting and among those who spoke were Prabhakar Sansgiri, president of Maharashtra state CITU, Narsaya Adam Master, MLA, Dr D L Karad, state secretary of Maharashtra CITU. Subha Shamim of AIDWA made introductory speech while Professor Ajit Abhyankar, president of Pune district committee of CITU and AIDWA leaders Kiran Moghe, Mariam Dhawale and Kalindi Deshpande were among those who greeted the convention.

CONVENTION AGAINST PRIVATISATION OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT

THE Bombay Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking, popularly known as BEST, is one of the pioneer transport network systems in the country. This century-old semi government enterprise, which is owned and operated by the Greater Bombay Municipal Corporation, is being sought to be privatised.

The BEST Kamgar Sanghatana in Mumbai organised a convention against this move to privatise public sector transport network in Maharashtra. The Bombay Municipal Corporation and the state transport authorities are planning this privatisation in these state owned enterprises at the dictates of the World Bank. The argument mooted is that these are old enterprises which require thorough modernisation and for that private capital is most necessary. It is no secret that under privatisation, the first step would be large-scale reduction in the staff strength and cut in services affecting people in remote villages in the state and far off slums in cities and towns. It was in this background that this convention came to be organised in Mumbai at Vanmali Hall. Representatives from various places and organisations came and took part in the convention on August 25. Uday Bhat of BEST Kamgar Sanghatana presided while proceedings began with an introductory speech by Dr S K Rege, secretary of BEST Kamgar Sanghatana.

The main speaker on the occasion was K K Diwakaran who is one of the national secretaries of CITU and general secretary of All India Transport Workers Federation. Diwakaran dealt with the problem of the transport industry as well as the plight of workers and the dangers of the so-called privatisation of this sector. He called for united actions to thwart these attempts for privatisation.

Hanumant Tate of HMS and general secretary of Maharashtra State Transport Kamgar Sanghtana, who was a special invitee, also strongly opposed the privatisation in transport industry. Mukta Manohar, convenor, Pune Mahanagar Vahatuk Kamgar Kruti Samiti, Jag Narayan Kahar, general secretary of BEST Kamgar Sanghtana also spoke opposing the privatisation moves. Narsayya Adam Master, CPI(M) MLA from Solapur while greeting the convention appealed for wider unity to stop the onslaught of this nefarious step. The convention unanimously decided to conduct a vigorous campaign against the danger of entry of private capital in the public transport sector.