[Reader-list] Closed factories, plight of workers & urban space

[nagarik mancha]

A factory closes down. The news, at times, gets 'covered'! Such news
in the media creates a ripple of uneasy sympathy in some. Most remain
unfazed. The unit doesn't reopen. Workers continue to suffer. So do
their families. In lakhs, and lakhs! That doesn't make news. Loss of
valuable square centimetres averted!
 
The civil society shows little empathy towards the plight of workers
in closed down units. The attitude of the 'welfare' state towards
those who had their backs against the wall is abysmally indifferent.
The issue is seldom truly addressed in the agenda of the
party-oriented central trade unions.

Closing down of a factory, by the way, is not synonymous to
'industrial closure'! In West Bengal a very small percentage of
factories face legal closures. Most of the more than half a lakh
closed industries have undergone 'lockout' or 'suspension of work' or
some such similar jargon-like terms which spells 'hunger', 'unpaid
dues' and 'joblessness' for the workers. And death, disease and
disaster for them and their family members.

The legacy of industrial sickness in West Bengal which in the late
60's and 70's witnessed the holocaust of sickness, is a spectre that
haunts us till date with varying degrees of intensity. Industrial
pockets were reduced to veritable graveyards for scores of chimneys
and factory shades. Or else it was wiped clean from the face of the
earth making way for an urban complex.

Some workers of these closed industries have perished but most have
survived, even though barely. Some have been displaced, but many more
occupy the same urban and semi-urban spaces where they lived as
workers. They have changed; so also such urban spaces they had
occupied and also the constituents of the nett occupiers of such urban
spaces.

The boom of real estate industry, for good or bad, indeed indicates an
increasing demand for apartments among a section of the so-called
middle class. The nature and structure of the urban space, even in the
non-affluent parts of the city and its suburbs, is undergoing a sea of
change. This market demand is having a somewhat catastrophic effect,
to a certain extent, on manufacturing industry in some areas. Capital
is moving from low return manufacturing sector to high return real
estate business. Demand for urban expansion, thus, is at times the
cause of, and consequently the motive force that is triggering the
closure of industrial units, in many cases on the plea of sickness,
leading to thousands of jobless, unprotected workers.

It maybe worthwhile to study in greater details the changes in the
lives and livelihood of hundreds of specific workers from closed
industries and its impact on the urban spaces they occupy. Conversely,
it would be revealing to study the changes in dozens of urban spaces
and ascertain the impact it might have had on the life and livelihood
of workers in the vicinity. The synergistic effects of these two
changes, is bound to usher in further changes among the remaining
non-worker occupiers of urban space too!

There could be a sea of difference of the plight of those workers who
are eking out a meagre living outside Kolkata as compared to their
brethren in the 'great' Eastern Metropolis. Yet another vital theme
emanates from the question as to what remains of, and what happens to,
the huge resource base of human skill and working experience, which
has been shunted out of production and laid to waste along with the
rusted machines, crumbling sheds and land in disuse, overgrown with
weeds and bushes? What is the prognosis of the ills befallen on those
skilful and experienced hands? Cannot this huge national resource base
be partly integrated in the current paradigm of ongoing
industrialisation? This is another huge question worth looking into!

This, in nutshell, is the proposed study Nagarik Mancha intends to
take up with support from Sarai/CSDS Independent Fellowship, 2005.

Nagarik Mancha (meaning citizen's forum), way back in 1989, started to
function as a solidarity and support group for workers in closed and
sick industries in and around Kolkata. It is a non-funded, non-party
citizen's initiative and is presently active in the field of labour,
industry and environment.

Nagarik Mancha intends to take up this study with the help of dialogue
oriented interactive surveys as well as a statistical surveys.
Emphasis will be on accumulating oral history from the grass root
level. Discussions and group meetings (with informed consent) aiming
at local grass root level participation will form the essential
building block of the surveys. Collection of locally published and
unpublished materials (leaflets; hand written letters; appeals and
memorandums to the administration) during such group interactions and
workshops will be attempted. The study will aim at comprehension and
analysis of relevant documents and publications, reports, statistics,
press clippings, leaflets, posters, previous surveys and other forms
of relevant literature including Government documents and papers. We
intend to interact with ground level activists, academicians, trade
unionists and professionals in the relevant and allied fields in West
Bengal.

The first lap
1. We have started short listing the seemingly relevant material so
long scattered in our own document collection which includes
monographs, government documents, newspaper clipping's, reports and so
on.
2.We have visited the areas around five closed units and have started
interacting to the workers and their families.
3.We have held half a dozen meetings with those activists who are
expected to participate in the surveys as well as our support team.
4.We have interacted with some of our resource persons.

Early days these!

Waiting for responses, suggestions and opinions. Waiting kenly!

Thanks.
 
Posted by Ashim
On behalf of Nagarik Mancha