2020-09-29 : Hamara Manch Update (on arrangements during quarantine)

Dear Friends,

As you know, the first batch of students has returned to campus and is

currently undergoing the compulsory 14-day quarantine. The Institute has

put in place an elaborate system for preparation and delivering of food to

these quarantined students. The system involves a lot of work, in fact

much more than regular messing activities (please see the attached report

for details of the work involved). As is usual, most of the work is done

by the ‘unskilled workers’ and yet surprisingly they have deployed very

few such workers - 7 for preparation of the meals and 15 for packing and

distribution. As a result, both the meal-preparation workers and the

packing-delivering workers are being forced to put in inhuman hours –

between 13 to 15 hours every day. This extreme understaffing is

completely inexplicable given that there are over 700 workers who have no

work for the past 6 months and are very keen to get any work.

HM believes that:

• Such an irrational system could have been avoided if the workers were

involved in the entire process of planning and redeployment of workers as

they have been asking for several weeks now.

• The workers would have not only been able to work out the adequate

number and kind of workers to be deployed in keeping with the requirement,

but also would have ensured a fair process in deciding which workers

should be given priority depending upon their needs.

• Probably a more effective alternative would be to divide the work in two

shifts – this would ensure both comfortable work conditions and also much

better service.

Hamara Manch

Sept. 29, 2020