Embedded Files
It is important to keep voicing our opinions collectively -- we believe that collective protests have been a significant influence and have forced the otherwise reluctant administration to acknowledge and act on on our concerns regarding working conditions at IITK, even if in a limited manner. Be it in the formation of Minimum Wage Monitoring Committee in 2000, the significant office order of September 2007, reinstatement of several workers in 2010, admitting and reluctantly acting on the absence of toilets in 2011, following the laws related to reporting of accidents and deaths even if partly since 2011 -- the role of collective protest is more than evident. It is also important to keep up at the task -- the promises and guarantees hard won with collective action are easily lost in the bureaucratic slumber and rush towards profit if we do not keep pushing for justice.
In this light, we have chosen to voice our protests, sometimes in public space (but limited to the alumni network), over incidents of injustice and violations of legal and human rights. We strongly encourage you to sign our ongoing petition :
Stop violating contract worker rights in IITK
Below you will find our protest letters/communications:
A. As a collective, Citizens' Forum has written several protest letters and petitions, several of them can be found on this website along with the corresponding case-study. Some of them are listed below. Several of these communications are ongoing and hence may only reflect partial reality.
(More collected communications)
(Even More)
Communication on Telephone Operators' case [RESOLVED]
Citizens' Forum Letter to Director on various issues, particularly grievance redressal mechanism, 22 May, 2013.
EPF mismanagement - Confidential, 2 May, 2013.
We have updated the page EPF, ESI and Workers' Cess, and communicated a detailed report to the administration along with. We are not sharing the report here to avoid possible identification/victimisation of the workers, but several details are available on the said page.
Admission to Kendriya Vidyalaya for all children, 21 Apr, 2013
Malaise of Arbirary firing and baithki at IITK campus , 18 Dec, 2012
A letter to Asha Jadeja Motwani, 14 Dec, 2012
B. Details of some other protests and petitions by alumni and campus community members is collected below:
Open Letter by campus community, Sept 2007, in wake of deaths in 2007.
Protest letter by IIT/K alumni at TIFR, 2009/03/12, regarding serious accidents in the campus, 2009.
A letter to Asha Jadeja Motwani, 2011/04/05, requesting her to demand from IITK admins that they should stop violating labor rights.
A letter to the new Director from President, Alumni Association, 2012/11/27, in context of two deaths in 2012, but on issues concerning contract labour in general.
We are also aware of several individual protest letters that were send to the administration by concerned alumni in the context of the death of Sri Atar Singh (see the suggested draft or our email to concerned alumni for details, if you want to join in).
There are several other alumni and campus community members who have voiced their protest in public space (e.g. alumni mailing lists or social media platform) or privately with the administration. We thank them all for their support.
C. Violation of workers' rights is not merely rampant at IITK, but also at other places in our neighborhood. For this reason, even though we seek engagement and participation within the IITK community (we believe that the most sustainable change comes from within), we do receive support from and support other groups engaged in similar endeavors. Sometimes this takes shape of support letters or campaigns, some of which are documented below:
AID Signature campaign, Sept 2007, in wake of deaths in 2007.
Citizens' Fourm Letter to Shramik Sangh, 20th Jan 2014
supporting their struggle against exploitation by Ambuja-Holcim and ACC-Holcim (as elucidated in this release).
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