YCW India demands to increase the daily minimum wage to Rs. 150 and jobs for unemployed young workers…….  

   We, YCW India, have been focussing the campaign for Social Protection for young workers since 1998. The priority demands of our campaign are to increase the daily minimum wage of workers in the informal economy from Rs. 80 to Rs. 150 and to provide jobs for the unemployed. In order to bring these 2 demands again to the local government and to the public, we decided to organise a press meet and a bicycle rally at Dindigul in Tamil Nadu on 29^th March 2010.

YCW Madurai took the responsibility to organise this action with the accompaniment and support from the national team. An action committee was formed including the YCW Madurai district team members and the national team. Preparation meetings were held on 13^th Feb and 23^rd March.

Press Meet

The action started with the press meeting on 29^th March at Dindigul. Reporters from 3 T.V channels and 3 news papers were present in the meeting. Rajesh, the national president explained the objectives of our action and the following demands to the press:

·        Increase the daily minimum wage to Rs. 150

·        Implement 8 hours work per day

·        Develop job oriented industries in rural areas making use of the natural resources available

·        Develop the local industries

·        Stop acquiring the agricultural lands for developing real estates

·        Stop the irregularities in the payment of the wages in 100 days jobs in an year

·        Set up monitoring committees at the district level for the proper implementation of the 100 days job program

·        Increase the number of days in the 100 days job program to 200 days

·        Start a government perfume factory in Dindigul

·        Support the unemployed youth to start their own self employment initiatives

·        Pay the unemployment benefit to the unemployed regularly and increase the amount of the unemployment benefit

He appealed the TV and press reporters to highlight the above demands of YCW India, through their TV channels and news papers to the public as well as to the awareness of the local government.

Bicycle Rally

After the press meet the bicycle rally started from the Tower Junction at Dindigul to the office of the District Collector 8 KM away. 32 YCW leaders from the district movements of Madurai, 5 national team members, 4 action team members, 5 YCW leaders from Kumbakonam, Thoothukudi, Thanjavur, Amaravathi and Akola participated in the Rally. Cinnamony, the treasurer from Madurai District movement welcomed the YCW leaders for the rally. Rajesh, the national president and Tavittupandi, the YCW Madurai district president led the rally.Motivation speeches and facilitations were given by Robert Vins, the former national team member and Bastian, the former YCW Madurai district president. Mardiyono, the IYCW Asia Pacific team member delivered the key note address and flagged off the bicycle rally. The YCW leaders carried the pluck cards indicating the demands in the rally. They also raised the demands through slogans during the rally. Leaflets with the demands were distributed to the public during the rally.

Presentation of the demands 

After reaching the office of the District Collector, Rajesh, the national president, Ravi, the national secretary, Thavittupandi, the president of YCW Madurai district, Dhananjay, the national team member and Mardiyono, the IYCW Asia Pacific team member met the District collector and presented the demands to him and appealed the collector to take necessary actions. The collector assured the YCW leaders that he will take necessary action to the demands. An acknowledgement of receiving the demands by the collector was issued to the YCW by an official receipt. 

At the end of the rally, Simon, the action team member from Madurai district thanked the YCW leaders and the public who participated and supported the action.