Student loans and how, PHEROZE L. VINCENT finds out
DOCUMENTS NEEDED
Education records- Banks prefer students with 70 to 80 per cent marks. Carry your mark sheets along.
Proof of admission- Bring your admission letter, course details and duration, details of the university (should be accredited, preferably by a government agency). Admission should be on merit.
Identity- Banks insist on checking your passport, PAN card and proof of age.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Some banks insist that the guarantor be less than 65 years old. They also need proof of her/ his residence.
If you are giving collateral, then it has to be assessed by the bank's accredited assessor, the documents be verified by the bank's lawyer and a non-encumbrance certificate acquired from the sub registrar.
You may be asked to take a life insurance policy.
Banks insist that borrowers be account holders in the bank, living in its vicinity. This is only a guideline and not a reason for denying a loan.
Mahalingam has been hammering me for 15 long years. We met when he came from Tiruchirapalli to make shoes here in Coimbatore. Back then, working out of his shanty in Kamarajapuram, we could produce a dozen pairs a day. Even with a rudimentary anvil like me we could make a profit of 35 per cent.
But after our customers went away to the big footwear outlets, we had to shut shop seven years back. We now work, out of a room in Ramanathapuram, for a local businessman. We have a few direct customers but now we mainly supply shoes to the dealers. Mahalingam and his friend Velu often have to wait long before they get paid. After our boss gets his cut, we make a meagre five per cent profit. No wonder none of their kids want to become cobblers...
Dr. M. N G. Mani tells Pheroze L. Vincent about his mission to win the battles disabled people fight everyday |
T.Narendra Rao,
General Secretary,
Water Transport Workers Federation of India,
Camp at: Mormugoa, dated: 20.01.2010. at 0800Hrs.
Dear Comrades,
First of all I would like to inform you all that the Historical wage settlement of the Port & Dock workers was at last signed on 19.01.2010 at Goa at exactly 12.30 Hrs of Indian Standard time. The lengthy process of wage negotiation which was started before 36 months and at last after 26 rounds of BWNC discussion has come to end and finally it was achieved with all of your co-operation and blessings. Really it is a good settlement for the Port & Dock workers of this Era.
However, there is a small itch, out of 5 recognized Federations, 4 Federation leaders have already signed the settlement papers including this Federation. The HMS (Kulakarni) federation did not sign the settlement so fact. Anyway, we hope the best, they will also be signing very shortly, they are waiting for word from their leader Mr.S.R.Kulkarni who is sick and staying at Mumbai.
But the reason which they are telling to their grass rood level cadres is different. That is the management is not providing the pay for the employees who got the promotion. However, the management, has circulated three model calculations of wage fixation for the employees who are getting promotions and method of their wage fixation other Public Sector Undertakings like M/s. Shipping Corporation of Indi a, M/s. Dredging Corporation of India and M/s. Cochin Ship Yard Limited, these three public sectors are coming under the purview of Shipping Ministry.
Any way the agreement is implementable by the Ministry, the sources from the Labour Department said. Because out of 12 BWNC members, 7 members have already signed the document. All efforts would be taken by the Port Management to pay the arrear amount within 60 days from the dagte of signing this settlement, copy of the original settlement papers would be sent to you after obtaininf the official documents from the Indian Ports Association, because they will give the papers only after obtaining the signatures from the HMS Federation.
Other details would be communicated as and when there is communication from IPA.
Thanking you all, with kind regards,
T.Narendra Rao,
General Secretary,
Cocoa is the new buzzword for farmers in Coimbatore district. Grown in the shade of coconut, cocoa gives a profit of around Rs. 15,000 per acre per year. It takes about three years to obtain the first harvest, and production peaks after seven years. It has a productive lifespan of 25 years. This well irrigated district, known for paddy, sugarcane and groundnut, is gradually shifting to cocoa.
“Rice is a suicidal crop,” says V. J. Prasad of Pollachi Taluk..Mr. Prasad began farming on his family’s 75 acres in Sethumadai, after voluntary retirement 15 years back. He tried every method to make paddy cultivation feasible but in vain. “The inputs are too costly. But the main problem here is the labour shortage,” he says.
With the youth choosing to work in textile mills in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts, farmers say, most of the workforce is above 45 years of age. “Their work hours have come down from seven to four a day. It is hard to find labour, even for high wages,” says farmer K. Sethuraman, who cultivates three acres in Ramanamudalipudur Thottam, near Anamalai.
Women are paid Rs. 80 and men, Rs. 150 for a day’s work here. Women now opt for work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), which fetches Rs.100 a day.
Heaps of coconuts gather cobwebs on his land, for want of labourers to extract the copra. “No one will steal them. The price is too low,” he says. A coconut fetches the grower a maximum of Rs. 4 in these parts.
Sethuraman, Prasad and other farmers now raise cocoa intercropped with coconut. Cocoa is neither capital nor labour intensive and the returns are as high as Rs. 110 per kg of dried beans. Upto 250 plants can be raised per acre to get almost 1.5 kg of dried beans per plant.
In June 2007, Tamil Nadu’s Horticulture Department signed a memorandum of understanding with Cadbury, one of the largest confectionery makers. As part of the deal, Cadbury’s nursery near Anamalai gives saplings to farmers for which the state foots the bill. The farmer is also assured of a minimum price of Rs. 60 for a kg of dried beans produced. The government gives them organic fertilizer and organic pesticide for free, and arranges technical assistance and institutional credit, through Cadbury.
The total government subsidy is more than Rs. 4,500 per acre, for the first three years of cultivation.
Farmers say that Cadbury's technical assistance they get is irregular, neem cakes are ineffective and credit is a nightmare. “We have to get the clearance from the tehsildar for pledging our patta (legal document of the ownership of the land) to get a loan from cooperative banks at 12 per cent interest. Why should we pledge our lands for a small loan,” asks Mr. Prasad.
Private lenders charge a monthly interest of two to three per cent, which compounds to 27 to 43 per cent per annum. Most farmers here though have invested their own money. They make a profit of only six to eight per cent of their investment, if they multi-crop. “We can get that much by just leaving the money in the bank,” adds Prasad. “We only keep our land for pride,” says Sethuraman.
Cultivation costs of cocoa range from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 an acre, depending on labour charges and irrigation. “This is a plantation crop and we can’t shift overnight if the prices fall,” says K. Krishnaraj who has 18 acres of cocoa at Ambarampalayam.
And that is the biggest risk. Between 1981 and 1982, cocoa cultivation peaked in Kerala and Karnataka. Farmers were assured of high prices and procurement. But in the late 80s, demand suddenly fell and chocolate manufacturers failed to honour their promise, just as the plants began to yield.
Unlike food crops, affected farmers can’t eat cocoa to survive.
According to P. Thirugnanasambantham, Coimbatore district secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha, the MoU’s assured price only holds good if there is any procurement of cocoa. “The government must provide labour to agriculture through the NREGA. Without subsidising labour, agriculture can’t survive,” he adds. Shunning food crops for cash crops is a serious threat to food security, he explains.
Farmers say that the government asks them to mechanise. But complete mechanisation is impossible and unviable for small farms. “Cadbury is only concentrating on big farms now,” says Mr. Prasad.
Com. "Olba", a friend of mine, published this in a workers' fortnightly in Faridabad. In this article, she writes of her experiences in India Inc. and about the prospects of organising IT workers. She works for an IT company in Delhi.
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?
