2020-09-03 : Workers@iitk Amidst the COVID Lockdown (Hamara Manch Update VI): Hall Mess Workers of IITK

Workers@iitk Amidst the COVID Lockdown

Hamara Manch Update 6: September 3, 2020

The sixth report of Hamara Manch on the state of IIT workers during lockdown is on the mess workers. IIT Kanpur is a residential campus and around 7000 students study here. One of the most crucial services for smooth running of the core activities of the Institute relies on consistent and reliable messing services. As the Institute website rightly claims in their blurb on student life ‘The Halls of residence provide great tasting nutritious food’ and the preparation of over 21,000 meals round the year every single day of regular running of the campus is ensured by the dedicated services of over 700 mess workers across fourteen halls of residences. These workers (and their families) too were left in a lurch when the Institute closed all the student hostels sine die on 20^th March 2020. We spoke to around 100 workers across several halls to understand how the mess workers of our Institute have been coping with the crisis created by the pandemic which has resulted in the loss of their livelihoods.

Hall Mess Workers of IITK

Messing is a perennial service for a residential campus. And though the working hours of these workers is way beyond the legally stipulated working day[1] most of the workers get minimum wages and other legal benefits like ESI (health) and EPF (Provident Fund). Further, because of their continued collective effort and the support of the students and the administration over the years, the mess workers are a stable workforce. This means that unlike the usual practice in contractual jobs, the workers remain in service even if the service provider (contractor) is replaced. This has ensured continuity of consistent and good quality messing services despite change in contracts, given the experience and teamwork of these workers. A conscientious workforce in the messes with support from student body has been instrumental in ensuring that some of the legal rights of workers are ensured in the Institute, even though there is ample scope for improvement.

Most of these workers live in the vicinity of the campus. Though a significant number stay in their family (joint) homes, about 25 percent of workers are from outside Kanpur and stay with their families in rented accommodation in the neighbourhood localities. Most of these workers are single earner or primary earners of their families. In regular times most of them got about 22 to 26 duties in a month which translates to about Rs 12,000 to Rs14,000 per month. This amount barely covered their regular expenses like food, education, accommodation, etc and usually nothing was left as savings. Any contingency – like a medical emergency or marriage was usually met with borrowings.

Post Closure of the Hostels

Like all other categories of contingent workers we have reported earlier, the financial condition of these seven hundred mess workers and their families have become increasingly uncertain over the months after the closure of the hostels. The Institute paid the wages for March as well as April to the mess workers. And then in July the Institute transferred a one-time amount of Rs 6,400/- to the mess workers’ accounts. Besides the salary of April, this is the entire support they have got from the Institute in the five months that have elapsed since the hostels closed in March.

Regular Expenses of Workers During this Period:

Food:

Most workers are dependent on the 5 kg of grains per month given to all members of the household through PDS who have a valid ration card. Some workers do not have a ration card hence have to buy from the market. All the other nutritional supplements including pulses and milk have practically disappeared from their plates. Just after the lockdown many people from the countryside would come to sell vegetables at extremely cheap prices, indicating widespread rural distress, hence families could afford them. At present the rural supply has dried out, and ironically, many of the workers have taken to selling vegetables themselves. But given the general lack of buying power, they are not able to cover even their costs.

Rent:

Majority of the workers stay in joint family situations hence do not have to shell out rent. Some workers who had moved out to independent households have been forced to go back to the joint household. Around 150 to 200 workers are from outside Kanpur, and though many of them have gone back to their native places since the lockdown some have stayed back in the hope that the Institute would open soon. They stay in rented accommodations where rent ranges from Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500 for a single room accommodation which sometimes include the electricity and the water bills and sometimes that is extra – around Rs 1000-1500/- more. Many of the landlords have agreed to postpone the rent payment for the time but the amount has been adding up and would need to be settled at some point.

Education

A significant component of their expenses is towards education for the children. The schools have generally gone online. Since going online, many schools in Nankari have not been insisting on payment of fees but some schools, including KV IITK, have demanded the fees to be paid in full, else have threatened that the ward’s name would be struck out. Most workers do not have money to buy books and stationery for their wards. Even earlier, most kids used to supplement their school lessons with tuitions but post the lock-down, tuitions have become even more crucial for school level education. Parents believe that should they discontinue tuitions their children would forget everything. Significantly tuitions are conducted in physical face-to-face mode.

· Most workers have two to three school-going children. They study in private schools in and around the campus (Nankari, Guba Garden, etc.). A few go to KV IIT Kanpur too.

· The school fees of children in primary classes ranges from Rs 600 to Rs 1500 per month.

· Tuition or coaching fees of children in primary section ranges from Rs 400-Rs 800 per month.

· School fees for higher classes ranges from Rs 700 to Rs 1000 a month.

· Tuition fees for higher classes ranges from Rs 1000 to Rs 2000.

· Fees for college-going children, who have already paid up for this session, is Rs 6000-Rs 8000 per annum.

· For wards attending professional colleges, fees vary from Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000 per annum. Many have not been able to pay up the amount. In the case of one worker whose son is studying physiotherapy and his annual fees is Rs 60,000, the worker withdrew his entire EPF fund and still could manage only Rs 20,000/-. He has requested clemency from his son’s college to allow his son to continue his studies with the promise that he would pay up the remaining amount in a few months’ time.

Medical Contingencies

Many workers have on-going medical expenses including chronic illnesses and conditions. We have not been able to collect detailed data and still we came to know of several instances including tuberculosis, cancer, amputation, physiotherapy for disabled children, life threatening ailments of elderly parents, hospitalisation and also deaths.

Employment during Lockdown

Not knowing when the messes would open and without any other source of income or savings most workers have been trying to get alternate employment since the unlock process started here. But even casual, temporary work has been very difficult to come by let alone steady employment. These workers, many of whom have decades of experience in messing (including multi-cuisine cooking, serving, cleaning, etc.), have tried to offer themselves in varied kinds of work just to get a few days of employment. The list below gives an idea of it. But even when they have been able to find employment for a few days, the wages are a fraction of their regular income (minimum wages) and the work hours are long.

· There has been a spate of small-time construction work in the localities surrounding the campus. Several mess workers have found a few days’ work as helpers. But since they are not used to this work there is a reluctance to hire them, and when they do get hired their wages are way below the market wage of Rs 400 per day. The work is sporadic and uncertain and has already dwindled due to the monsoons.

· Several workers have tried to get themselves hired in the Kalyanpur labour market. But given the general distress in the job market there is usually an oversupply of workers and very few get hired. The going rate for unskilled worker in the labour market is Rs 250-300 per day.

· Several workers have started ferrying vegetables in carts, but again since there are so many of them, many have dropped out because of not even being able to cover their costs. The maximum they can earn is around Rs 150-200/ day.

· A few workers have been working in the RA Tower mess – for a 16-hour day work they have been getting Rs 200 per day.

· One has found 10-12 days of work as driver @ Rs 200/ day.

· One worker has been doing some metalwork for 10 days a month @ Rs 250-300 per day.

· One worker has been making leaf plates and bowls (pattal-dona) @ Rs 300/- per day for 20 days a month.

· One worker has been ironing clothes and earns Rs 400/ for a week.

· One worker has been working as a domestic help at homes in Barasirohi and makes Rs 2700/ month.

· Another worker, who is an LIC agent, had managed to sell insurance policies to 25 people, but 10 are not able to pay the premium.

· Another worker had started a mobile cart for chips and momos, but had to wind up in two days due to lack of demand

How are they Managing?

Most of the workers have no savings and whatever little they had has got exhausted. With no steady income they have been reduced to the following options:

Relying on extended family members

Some of the workers’ parents draw pension and the entire extended families have fallen back to this meagre sum to pull through. For example, one of the worker’s and his three brothers and their families, fifteen members in all, are now dependent on their mother’s widow pension of Rs 9,000/- per month. Another worker and his family and parents are dependent on his brother who has found employment in metro construction where he is supposed to get Rs 8,700/- per month.

Withdrawing of Funds and Savings

Many workers have withdrawn substantial amounts, in some cases the entire amount, from their EPF accounts to meet monthly expenses and contingencies. The withdrawn amounts range from Rs 20,000/- to Rs 40,000/-. This was their last resort – they have no buffer left for the future. As one worker reported that his daughter’s marriage is due in November but now that he has exhausted his PF money in meeting the household expenditure, he does not know how he would manage.

Loans from Moneylenders

Some workers have been forced to take loans from moneylenders at exorbitant rates. The loan amount ranges from Rs 5,000 to Rs 80,000 with interest ranging from 5% to 10 % per month[2]. Most of them have not even started paying back their interest let alone the principal. A few workers are already so heavily indebted that the moneylender has taken custody of their ATM card, passbook, chequebook and even Aadhar and PAN cards. At least one mess worker has committed suicide in this period. Apparently one of the primary reasons for him taking this extreme step was that he had a substantial outstanding loan and was very hassled as to how he would repay it.

Conclusion

The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the entire system including the Institute and its constituent members. All of us including the administration are trying to cope with this unprecedented situation. We all hope and believe that the Institute would go back to its normal functioning at some point, hopefully soon. And meanwhile the Institute had been doing maintenance work to ensure that the various resources including the hostels, lawns, laboratories, premises, building and machineries are kept in running condition so that once things ease out they would be able to perform as required. What is surprising is that the Institute seems to assume that the workforce which kept the Institute running in usual times would simply be accessible whenever it is decided that their services are required. But in over five months they have not made any attempt to hold a dialogue with the workers to enquire how they are managing their lives in this situation. And even more importantly what the Institute’s plans are regarding them. And this has left the workers very bewildered. A sentiment we heard repeatedly from the workers is that ‘we really appreciate the support the Institute has given us and would consider it a privilege to get back to work, any work, for the Institute. We used to spend 16 hours every day in the campus and today no one allows us to enter the campus, our id cards as workers have no meaning. We cannot sustain for much longer. The uncertainty is killing us, and we do not know whom to talk to about it.’

[1] For messing kind of activities it is maximum 8 hours spread over at most a 12 hour period, beyond which one needs to pay overtime. Whereas in IITK messes the worker reports to duty at 6.30 am and by the time he finishes after clearing up the mess and cleaning it, it is usually 10.30-11 pm, which means a 16 hour workday with some intermittent breaks.

[2] A 10% interest per month means that for a Rs 1000 loan every month the interest due is Rs 100 and the loan amount itself is given after deducting the first month’s interest.

Attachment: mess workers report Covid 19.pdf