People's Democracy

Bring Unorganised Workers' Bill Now

Thousands Demonstrate In Delhi

AT the call of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), thousands of unorganised workers marched to parliament and held a demonstration on their demands on December 8, 2005. The nearly forty thousand strong demonstration demanded immediate action by the government to enact a comprehensive legislation on labour rights, service conditions and social security coverage for the unorganised sector workers. The workers came from many parts of the country, particularly from the northern region, joined the demonstration. The demonstration assumed special importance in view of the 40th Indian Labour Conference being held on the same agenda on December 9-10, 2005 at New Delhi.

The main resolution adopted by the rally expressed serious resentment over the inaction of the UPA government in taking urgent steps to enact the comprehensive legislation for the unorganised sector workers, to which the government is commitment-bound as per their own Common Minimum Programme (CMP). Despite lapse of 18 months since the UPA government assumed office, the Unorganised Sector Workers’ Bill could not be finalised. Contrast this with the fact of the government bringing several bills for the benefit of the employers and capitalists like PFRDA Bill, SEZ/EPZ bill, and two other bills aimed at empowering the employers to ignore their obligations to workers under various labour laws. Such an anti-worker approach of the UPA government will not be tolerated, asserted the resolution adopted by the rally. The rally also demanded immediate release of Mukesh Yadav, the CITU leader of Ferozabad who had been detained in jail and tortured for several months for leading the glass-bangle workers’ struggle.

The huge demonstration was addressed by M K Pandhe, president and Chittabrata Majumdar, general secretary, CITU, P K Ganguly, convenor, All India Coordination Committee of Unorganised Sector Workers(CITU) along with W R Varada Rajan and Tapan Sen, both secretaries of CITU. The CITU leaders stressed upon the need for intensifying the countrywide struggle by the unorganised sector workers to compel the recalcitrant government to accede to the demands of the workers. Basudev Acharia, MP and leader of the CPI(M) in Lok Sabha and Brinda Karat, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and MP also addressed the rally and assured to raise the just demands of the workers in parliament and fight for legislation for the unorganised sector workers. The demonstration was also greeted by the leadership of other central trade unions viz. S N Thakur (AITUC), Thampan Thomas (HMS), A N Dogra (BMS), R K Sharma (UTUC-LS), Santosh Roy (AICCTU) who assured to strengthen the united struggle of the workers against the government's anti-worker policies. CITU leaders from various states viz., Daulat Ram (UP), Subhash Mukherjee (West Bengal), Rajjo Devi(Ferozabad), Sudhir Kumar and Mohanlal (Delhi), Raghunath Singh (Punjab), Ravinder Kumar (Himachal Pradesh), Nirdosh Uppal(J&K), B S Rana (Rajasthan), Vivek Monterio (Maharashtra), Promod Pradhan(MP), Arun Mishra (Bihar), Virendra Bhandari (Uttaranchal) etc. Several members of parliament, Shantashree Chatterjee, Sunil Khan, Susmita Bauri, Sudhangshu Seal, P Madhu, Prashanta Pradhan, Dipankar Mukherjee, Nilotpal Basu, Tarit Topdar, Laxman Seth, Prasanta Chatterjee, Sujan Chakraborty, Dr Ramchandra Dom joined the demonstration expressing solidairty with the demands of the unorganised workers. From the rally a memorandum detailing the demands of the workers was sent to prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.