“The contract system must go”

The Word reporter PHEROZE L. VINCENT talked to K. G. Kalimuthu, a beedi labour leader, about the problems and prospects of beedi workers in Vellore district.

K. G. Kalimuthu is the President of the Tirupathur Taluk Beedi Labour Union in Kodiyur, Vellore District. The union is affiliated to the United Trade Union Congress of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), a constituent of the Left Front.

Over 70 years old, Mr. Kalimuthu has rolled beedis since his childhood. Influenced by the communist movement in his boyhood, he joined the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) in the 1940s. He has undergone imprisonment several times, spending two years behind bars in all.

In 1964 he followed his mentors Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Jyoti Basu, P. Ramamurthi and A. K. Gopalan to form the Communist Paty of India- Marxist (CPM). He spearheaded the successful agitation in 1985 to regularise the services of beedi workers in Tamil Nadu and achieve minimum wages, provident fund, bonuses and paid leave. These benefits won through bitter struggle have now been eroded by the introduction of the contract system.

Two years ago, he split from the CPM and joined the RSP. He says he did so because he felt that the CPM had begun to only represent organised workers in the private sector. He broke away when he was asked to merge his union into a Vellore district wide union of beedi workers. “Our account books are open to all, but we can’t sacrifice our independence,” says this veteran revolutionary.

The walls of his office are still adorned with portraits of the CPM leaders named above.

Excerpts from the conversation:

PLV: Since when have you been involved in the union?

KGK: We started this union in 1955. It was then affiliated to the All India Trade Union Congress of the undivided CPI. Later on it was affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions of the CPM.

PLV: What are the demands of the beedi workers?

KGK: We demand payment of minimum wages, provident fund, bonus during festivals and leave with pay. We achieved these rights after a massive agitation in 1985. To get around these regulations the beedi companies started the contract system more than a decade ago.

In this system, the rolling work is given to contractors who employ people in villages to do the job. They work at home and are not organised. They do not get any benefits apart from their wages. If we are to realise the rights we fought for, the contract system has to go. We demand direct employment under the principal employers.

PLV: But, the law allows contract labour. The liability of providing mandatory benefits to the workers is on the company.

KGK: The companies bribe the government officials and get around these regulations. The Labour and Provident Fund departments of the government do not implement these benefits.

PLV: Then why aren’t beedi workers agitating?

KGK: Only 10% of the 1 lakh workforce in the district is organised. Ours is the largest union. There are other unions affiliated to CITU, AITUC and Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) of the Congress party.

PLV: Why such a low level of union membership?

KGK: Workers are nowadays largely in the villages. It is easier to organise in urban centres, where large numbers of workers live and work in proximity, often together in factories. We are not that successful in penetrating rural areas.

PLV: Isn’t the trade itself bad? Beedi rolling is said to cause tuberculosis and cancer.

KGK: If the government wants to ban this trade, it must provide us alternative employment. The beedi industry is the third largest employer in the country. Cigarettes are more dangerous.
I have been rolling beedis ever since I can remember and I’m perfectly healthy. I know people who smoke 20-25 beedis a day and live into their nineties. There is a lot of adverse medical propaganda in this regard.

(This reporter spoke to five families that rolled beedis, in three villages in the district. None had any diseases. Other reporters of this paper came across some cases of respiratory diseases in beedi workers.)

PLV: Has the Smoking Ban reduced employment of beedi workers?

KGK: No, the employment levels are the same. The way I see it, people with breathing problems shouldn’t go anywhere near tobacco or it will kill them. For the healthy, there is no problem.

The government is busy implementing smoking bans. Can’t it do something to provide alternative employment? Agriculture has failed. I haven’t gone to college like you and I can’t speak English, but I know that if we don’t save this industry, we will starve.

PLV: What about child labour?

KGK: Times have changed. People of my generation and the next grew up rolling beedis. Now, awareness of the need for education has been spread. Even the poorest of landless labourers send their kids to school. Some children do the work of closing beedi ends, after school, but most kids don’t touch beedis.

PLV: Doesn’t the fragmentation of unions jeopardise labour unity?

KGK: I left CITU with a heavy heart. But, the leaders like Ramamurthi (he glances at his portrait hanging on the wall) who led me into the movement are now gone. I have rolled beedis for decades. We workers know our problems. Union leaders without experience in the field cannot effectively guide us.

Also, leaders like Surjeet and Gopalan were austere mass leaders who were revered. I have heard reports of Income Tax Department raids on the homes of present day Communist leaders. How can a man whom the IT department raids be a communist?