Against bondage: the struggle in JNU continues

How can a family survive in Delhi on 65 rupees a day? On 14th November 2006, fifteen construction workers approached JNUSU with the complaint that instead of the 70 rupees they had been promised, they were being forced to accept 65 rupees a day. The legal minimum wage for Delhi is Rs. 127.40 per day! The very next day, the contractors threw these fifteen workers out of work, also refusing to pay them any money for work done in November.

Faced with non-payment of minimum wages on campus, JNUSU decided to step in. So as to determine the extent of the violations, we undertook a detailed survey at construction sites on campus. But as word reached the contractors, they threatened the workers into silence and obstructed the survey teams. Everywhere we saw an absence of basic facilities like drinking water, no muster rolls were found nor were any crèche facilities available to the workers children.

The issue at hand is part of a larger malaise: of the condition of the unorganized sector in our country today. Though they constitute over 90% of the total working populace, they possess no job security, no pension, no benefits or medical facilities. Back in Chattisgarh, there is little work in their villages and most own barely half a bigha of land. And, there are debts that mount and expenses to be paid --- the marriage of children, medical treatment, the repairs of houses submerged in monsoon floods. In the city, they move from place to place, uprooted at the contractors' will, dependent on their daily wages for survival.

On 22 November, JNUSU representatives met with JNU administration, emerging with a list of promises. We were promised that the workers would be reinstated and arrears would be paid to them. All contractors would be made to pay minimum wages. Muster rolls would be ensured at worksites and supervision of payments would take place. In addition, medical and toilet facilities would be provided to the workers and creche facilities extended to their children. We think that a victory of sorts has been achieved, and students and workers celebrate together.

But within a day, administration goes back on its word. Since they dared to take a stand, not only are these fifteen workers refused work, but they were also threatened in other ways. They are told the other 100 workers at the site would be set against them, incited to beat them up, and level false allegations against them. So as to prevent a situation of unrest, on 25 November we meet the rest of the workers at the School of Physical Sciences (SPS) site after they have finished work for the day. Initially a few people come, but slowly, a crowd gathers. Here too, they speak of depressed wages and the coercion of the contractors. Their children have no warm clothes and at night, mist drips through the roofs of their jhuggis.

On the 27th, as work is in progress at the SPS site, a woman is injured but sent away without adequate medical attention. This angers the workers who say they will not work until their legal entitlements are provided to them. The contractor, Jialal Malhotra, uses this opportunity to close work at the site. This is a clear case of coercion, since all these workers are dependent on their daily wages. Most have worked for only a week, and have as yet received no payment. Faced with looming food insecurity and the approaching winter, JNUSU decides to set up a community kitchen. We receive overwhelming support from several quarters: mess workers [who kickstart the kitchen], Mamu, Shombhu and Teflas Canteens [for lending us vessels], JNU Security [for daily transport of food supplies], JNUKA and JNUTA. Each evening, students and workers cook together in the open space behind SSS I [and later near the SCS building.] Yet the process is not easy, and the anger is often directed towards us. Still, the stalemate continues, still the contractor remains adamant and the administration pleads helplessness.

On 2 December, Malhotra finally agrees to make wage payments for the SPS site. But the wait has proved too long for many families. Two days earlier, the SPS basti emptied out --- a week without food or the promise of wages, entrapped in a debt cycle that began in the village, they are taken by their jobber to work elsewhere. Though he sends payments, Malhotra is not accountable to those who left. In the morning, officials from CPWD arrive, and sit clustered around a table, while outside the workers wait for their names to be called. The muster roll is clearly fabricated: many names are absent, lesser days of work were recorded, and skilled workers were paid at unsilled rates. As a result, JNU Engineering department is made to seize this document in the presence of representatives from JNUSU and JNUTA. Till date, the remaining payments for this site have not been made.

Following a unanimous all-party call, a protest-demonstration is called and a delegation meets the rector to pressurize for immediate payments. Within the weeks the other contractors, Chaudhary and Nafeez, also get ready to make payments. This time, we're ready with our own records, based on the jobber's register and labour recall, and force them to correct discrepancies on the muster rolls. The payments for November are made in full, but arrears are also paid for the earlier months when payments were made according to 65 rupees. This process of payments is a major step since minimum wages were finally enforced on campus. But the workers have been waiting for nearly a month, and the money will run out soon if they do not find work.

Finally, on 13 December, the fifteen workers find work at the SSS canteen. This should have been a cause for some relief, but that very afternoon, Dharamvir Singh of the JNU Engineering Department approached the contractor pressurizing him against employing such 'troublemakers.' The next day, under instructions from the Engineering Department, the contractor Chaudhary arrived and set his men to breaking the workers jhuggis. Everyone was at work and it was only when their children went crying to them that they realized that their houses were being destroyed. By the time JNUSU arrives, most of the damage has been done. The plastic covering was torn and broken bricks lay over tea cups and vessels, blankets and trunks. Of some houses, only the platform remains. This blatant act of violence is an attempt to dismiss a troublesome affair. We surround the contractor who panics at the sight of so many people. He tries to call administration, but no one from administration will come.

We proceed towards ad-block where we encounter Dharamvir Singh who refuses to acknowledge the contractor or admit to ordering the demolition of the jhuggis. Surprised by such amnesia, Chaudhary tells us that he paid 12 lakhs for the contract to Dharamvir Singh! We wait at the rectors office till the administration tells us: 'The workers should vacate the building.' They ask us to proceed downstairs, saying they will come down to talk. Once we’re outside, they close the gates. We wait for five minutes, half-an-hour, and then four hours. Briefly, the rector emerges to say that administration will only talk to the 'student's union.' We say that we, as students, are the union. We ask, 'Why is administration afraid of its own students?' The answer is, 'We are not afraid. But we prefer that you stay outside.'

For an entire month, JNUSU has been negotiating with the administration on a variety of issues. Yet most demands remained unfulfilled. To top it all, the administration was now refusing to even talk to us on the issue! At four 'o' clock, the decision is taken to enter ad-block through the side-gate. Thirty students storm up three flights of stairs, only to find security guards pushing to close the gate, though we manage to wedge it open. Inside, collective energies combine to create an uproar. It takes two more hours and several interactions with JNUTA and administration, before the Vice-Chancellor agrees to accept a memorandum and hold a meeting with us on the issue.

On Monday, 18 December, we walk into ad-block, up two flights of stairs, and into a room with white leather chairs. We drink tea in spotless cups and listen to the politics of paternal benevolence. They espouse the virtues of "due process" and tell us not to "create a situation where the contractor will stop work." They urge us to accept "the reality of the situation", saying that even if we ensure the payment of minimum wages on campus, these workers will not receive them elsewhere. But the reality of the situation is that the violation of minimum wages is a violation of the law. JNU is employing bonded labour.

We realize how extensive the problem of underpayment and casualisation is when approached by a group of safai karamcharis and gardeners, employed by the private firm Vayudoot. At the rate of 127.40 rupees per day, the legal monthly minimum income should be 3312 rupees. Instead, these workers are paid a flat rate of 2500 rupees, 600 rupees from their salary is cut for uniforms, and payments are made at the Noida office only after signing empty vouchers. Here again, for raising their voices, wages have been delayed, depressed and denied. 46 gardeners have been thrown out and safai karamcharis are working under the imminent threat of retrenchment. December's payments are yet to be made. Despite a sustained struggle by students and workers, the JNU administration as Principal Employer has not taken any concrete steps to enforce worker’s rights. Worse still, the contractor-JNU administration nexus has stepped up its oppression and compelled these workers to leave JNU.

Where are the accounts of where public money is being spent and why does administration flinch from giving them to us? If the cost of a bench being set up is 30,000 rupees then why does it shirk from providing the most basic facilities to its workers? Why does the principal employer claim helplessness before the contractors and then work in tandem with them to destroy the workers dwellings? And how can a campus that seeks international repute violate the most basic labour laws of the land? Such is the situation as it prevails today on campus. The point, however, is to change it.

JNU is built on progressive ideas and radical politics. It shall not be built on bonded labour. We have been taught that ideas exist in the presence of a community, and we will not accept a distancing of ideas and practise. We will not be alienated from those who work among us. Nor will we be alienated from the selves that we can be. We will not accept the compromises of administration nor its diktats seeking to curb protest. Against the 'reality of the situation', we will construct a politics of the possible.

We will not relent till answers are provided. We urge you to join the JNU workers-students struggle to implement workers rights on campus.

SMASH THE CHAINS OF BONDAGE!!!

ENFORCE WORKERS' RIGHTS!!!