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YCW District Kumbakonam: "Implement Minimum Wage!" |
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Friday, 17 August 2007 |
“YCW Kumbakonam demands the district administration to put pressure on the landlords to implement minimum wage act”
Signature campaign by YCW Kumbakonam to demand government to implement minimum wage.
Context of the action
Kumbakonam district is mainly an agricultural area (consisting of Melathirupanthuruthi, Punalvasal, Kulimathoor, Varagoor and Adanchoor villages). The lands are owned by the upper caste land lords. The dalits (lower caste men and women) work in the farms of these upper castes land lords. The dalits do not own any land. They work as daily wage workers in these forms. However, there is discrimination in the wage between men and women. The daily wage for women is Rs. 30 (Euro 0.54) per day per person. Daily wage for men is Rs. 60 (Euro 1.1) per day. The minimum wage announced by the government for women is Rs. 70 (Euro 1.3) and for men Rs. 80 (Euro 1.5) per day. They work from 10 to 12 hours per day. Moreover, this is seasonal work and they could get maximum 6 months work per year. Other six months the men migrate to towns and cities to find jobs.
5 YCW base groups are active in the above mentioned 5 villages. The groups have 8 to 13 young workers as members. They are young men and young women.
The concrete problem of workers YCW tried to solve through this action was not implementing the minimum wage act. The group wanted that the government force the landlords to implement the minimum wage as announced by the government
Strategy evolved
The YCW base groups discussed about the current wage they receive from the landlords. They could discover through the support of the experts and lawyers that the wage they receive is less than the minimum wage policy announced by the government.
This discussion about the minimum wage was brought to the awareness of the informal work action team (National level). The leaders of the action team went to the base and met with the members of the base groups and district team. The national leaders during their discussion with the base groups underlined that it is their right to have minimum wage. This was again reflected in the district council of YCW Kumbakonam. The council decided to develop an action to implement the minimum wage. Therefore, it was included in the district plan of action. The district team decided to organise a signature campaign in support of the demand to implement the minimum wage for the agricultural workers.
The format to collect the signatures in support of the demand from the workers and public were given to the 5 YCW base groups. These groups collected 450 signatures from workers and the public in the last week of April 2007
The district team (14 leaders) gathered in Thiruwaiyaru on 1st of May 2007 and collected 450 the signatures from workers and public. During this campaign, YCW base groups and the leaders distributed 1000 pamphlets explaining to the other workers and public about this action and the demand.
The demand to force the landlords to implement the minimum wage act and the 900 signatures were handed over to the District Collector (District Administrator)
The result of the action
The result of the action was that the district collector gave a written assurance that an officer from the district administration will investigate the matter in 30 days and forward the report to the government for further action.
2 YCW leaders from the district team improved their skills in preparing the petition and lobbying with district officials. 6 leaders from the base groups learned how to explain to the people about the demands and how to get the signatures from the public. More young workers are now in contact in 2 new areas (Thirumanur and Thingalur) in the district.
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