Labour

People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) published a fact-finding report on Garment Workers' Strike recently. This is the account of what happened on the day protests erupted - excerpt from the fact-finding report: By most accounts, the Garment Workers' Strike of 18th and 19th of April, 2016 started at Shahi Exports and spread from one unit of Shahi Exports to another, and to other manufacturers' units as well. Around 4,500 workers walked out of the Shahi Exports unit in Maddur at around 9.30 am on April 18. Word spread from unit to unit, and workers of Unit 14, Shahi Exports…

Kaveri (name changed), hails from a remote village in Raichur district. It has been two years since she shifted to Bengaluru and started working in a construction site. Her employer would pay her Rs 6,000 a month in two instalments. The money she earned added up to the family income and was used mostly to look after her three girl children, whom she sees as a ray of hope. She admitted all her girls to a private school back home with an intention to provide them good education. But last two months have been considerably tough for Kaveri. She has…

Vinay Sreenivasa of BBMP Contract Pourakarmika Union, talks to Radio Active 90.4Mhz on the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike not revising the payment of contract labourers, despite the hike in minimum wages that took place three months ago. You would all remember our numerous protests over the past two years demanding increase in wages. Presently we receive little above Rs 7,000/- with which we are to pay our rent, food, education, health, etc. These abysmally low wages have forced us into a cycle of poverty and debt, which is never ending. It is to address this that our Union took up…

Plastic waste from across the city is collected at Jolly Mohalla, before it undergoes recycling process. Pic: Akshatha M Abdul Khader, a middle-aged man, owns a modest plastic waste collection centre in the narrow lanes of Jolly Mohalla. Amidst the bunch of scrap dealers spread across this famous location close to K R Market in Bengaluru, Khader established his shop 25 years ago. For him and his three employees, the day starts at 4 am. Kabadiwalas and ragpickers throng his shop early in the morning carrying plastic waste from across the city. “I buy these plastic cups and plates for…

The National Research Conference on Human Trafficking is being jointly organised by Christ University and International Justice Mission (IJM) under the aegis of the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC), on September 14th and 15th.    Date: September 14th, 9 am to 4.45 pm, September 15th, 9 am to 5.30 pm  Venue: Room 911, Central Block, Christ University More info: Ritu Biswas - 96208 23163 Sangeetha George - 96117 41488 humane@conference.christuniversity.in  The Conference will bring together experts and stakeholders to share their experience, research and analysis from across India to enable a deeper understanding of the approaches needed to address the…

  Caregivers, housekeepers, maids, nannies, cooks or domestic help - call them by any name, domestic workers in the country are still in the fringes. Why, one may ask? The phrase ‘domestic work’ conjures images of household work associated domesticity – the one of cleaning and caring, and hence relationships that exist within this frame remain in the shadows. There has always been a gendered stigma attached to domestic work especially in India, and the work is always viewed through the lens of power and authority, submission and suppression Of memsahib, her maid and India’s colonial past “This can be…

The Karnataka Domestic Workers Union has organised a protest against the employment of minors as Domestic Workers.  Time: Thursday August 21st, 3 30pm and 4 30pm Venue: Karmikara Bhavana, Bannerghatta Road The Karnataka Domestic Workers Union strongly condemns the recent attack on a child domestic  worker by her employers in Bangalore. We stand in solidarity with the girl who struggled for her life  for ten days at Vani Vilas hospital and demand that the employers are brought to justice. We stand for the right to life, dignity and education of every child and we demand that the girl is rehabilitated and…

July 15 was the deadline for the public to send in comments and suggestions  to the government’s ministry of labour and employment, about the proposed amendment to the law on child labour (prohibition). An NGO, Walkfree, working on child labour abolition had put out alerts, urging the public to sign the petition to the government, but at last count just before the deadline, there were only around 2,300 signatures. In a country of 1.2 billion people, this hardly qualifies as “popular involvement.” I haven't seen any involvement on this in Bangalore. We need deeper thinking, especially among the citizenry (rather…

This is not a crime thriller but a true story. Right in the heart of metropolitan city Bengaluru, with its 30 lakh vehicles (at last count) for a population of 90 lakh plus 1,300 new vehicles registered every day, a person dies. And no one cares! Muniyappa didn’t die of infection or injuries. He died of malnutrition and hunger, even as the parliament was passing the historic Food Security Bill. Rather, he was murdered - by a government that focuses on GDP growth, FDI and “market reforms” rather than the poor and destitute, who are also human, and for whom…

A few months back, when Union Minister Jairam Ramesh made an observation that in India we have more temples than toilets, there was a general unqualified uproar among the political class who demanded an apology even regarding a genuine concern, as always.As a resident of a ‘so called' well planned and affluent locality like HSR Layout, my observation is no different than the Union Minister. Construction workers waking up as early as 4 am to answer their calls of nature in an empty site nearby or dark spaces away from the view of early morning walkers is a regular ritual.…