March 6th, 4:00pm, meeting with workers from erstwhile Environmental Building construction site.

    We met workers from erstwhile Environmental Building construction site to be apprised of their ordeal first hand. For the meeting only four-five workers could join us initially (while the number of workers affected is around twenty-five - a few workers have already left for Malda, a few others were on their worksite). Much of their case has been documented elsewhere, but the meeting brought us face to face with aspects often missed by such reports. Several of these workers were working since long (in some cases since 15-20 years!) in the campus with various contractors when they were asked to leave unceremoniously with active connivance of the institute officials. We learned of one mason who was injured in a major accident at the then auditorium construction site -- while this worker survived, several others died, and since no one kept a record or attendance, no one knows how many! In many ways the present saga at Environmental Building site is symptom of the same callous attitude towards their rights and lives:  workers were being asked to complaint if their legal rights are violated by the contractors, and when they did they were fired even as the committee formed to enquire into finds the accusations correct (but attempts to dress them up as natural).

    Not only were the actions of the institute illegal and immoral, it lost some of the best masons around! (Peripherally elsewhere, we also came to know of several problems with the new constructions prompting even faculty complaints, a theme we did not pursue.) It also became clear to us that these workers were making much more outside because of their talents than they do in the institute. As they said, jab tak haathon mein hunar hai tab tak hum kahin bhi kama-kha sakte hain (till we have talent in our hand, we can earn and eat anywhere). However most of them were still willing to work in the institute -- it is this fact we learnt to appreciate here and in several other meetings: for workers it is not merely a struggle for wages, but much more a struggle for dignity. It is for that reason they had come to meet us, some of them leaving their days wages, cycling over twenty kilometres one way.

    Much contrary to our expectations we also learnt that even the base wages in the Kanpur labour market are higher than those at IIT Kanpur for construction related works. Those at IIT Kanpur are artificially subdued by bringing in the migrant workers from outside the city. As the day progressed, this meeting gelled into the next with workers of various kind joining in, and converted into a Hamara Manch Meeting.