2020-09-20 : Hamara Manch Update (on supporting mess workers)

Dear Friends,

It has been heartening to see the support extended by the community

(including faculty and students) with respect to the mess workers' issue.

We have sent our common concerns signed by 24 of us to the director

yesterday (the letter is appended). The background to this drive for

building support in the community is a remarkable collective initiative by

mess and some canteen workers. A brief account is given below.

As one can appreciate that with no source of income over the past five

months, these workers and their families have faced enormous difficulties.

And yet, instead of each individual getting caught up just in sustaining

their own families, these workers have come together in support of each

other. Besides holding innumerable meetings to share experiences and

plans, they have been visiting each-others' homes to understand problems

they are facing and also calling up their fellow-workers who could not

continue to stay in Kanpur after they lost their jobs. And it is as a

collective that they are asking the Institute to provide them work, and to

communicate with them about how this work can be done in the best possible

manner. In this regard, the following points are notable:

1) The mess workers of each hall have selected a few representatives from

amongst themselves. These representatives have taken the responsibility to

meet/ talk regularly to share updates and ideas about how to proceed, and

share the decisions taken with all the workers of their respective halls.

It is through this process that the letter to the community was written

and around 500 worker signatures collected.

2) It has been decided that as and when work becomes available in IIT, the

work and its wages will be shared amongst members of the collective.

3) A list of five workers from each hall (70 workers across halls) has

been prepared, and shared with the CoSHA convener (who has been in touch

with this worker-representative body) as the pool from which the first set

of workers should be chosen to begin the messing work. This list is based

on level of need of workers; those who are facing the greatest

difficulties have been chosen for this first list. It has also been

ensured that these lists include women workers, and workers able to

perform the various tasks involved in messing (from cooking to serving and

cleaning).

4) It is notable that this list of 70 does not include names of the

representatives themselves who have spent so much time and effort in

furthering this work. In spite of being in dire conditions themselves

(some are single mothers) the representative group has selected the most

needy workers from among the entire collective.

5) A solidarity fund has been proposed in which workers who get work will

contribute part of their wages, and from which financial assistance will

then be offered to other members of the collective.

The workers have come together, putting individual needs aside and also

transcending differences of hall /contractor. Supporting these workers,

therefore, means not focusing separately on their individual needs and/or

groups of workers on the basis of different halls / contractors. Rather,

we need to support this collective effort, and join with them to make it

stronger.

Hamara Manch

Sept. 20, 2020