[Reader-list] Is it actually industrialization ?

[Sudipta Paul]

The wheel of industrialization of West Bengal is running very first  with frequent closure of many industries. It does not allow any  resistance through out the path of industrialization. The movement  against the closure of industries, the scarcity of land, militant  movement of the land losers, demand of job of land losers , demand of  minimum wages and other facilities etc - whatever happens it is running  smoothly at any cost. It's true that with industrialization a number of  people will get jobs. One new industrialist of Asansol, Paban Ghugutia  said in an interview with a correspondent of "Ananda Bazar Ptrika" :  "Suppose an industry is built up. Unemployed youths will get the jobs.  They will earn money. Economic status of the workers will be changed.  They will go to market to buy the necessary commodities. Then there  will be some sort of economic transactions. So with increase of  industry, the life of human beings will also develop." In the course of  the
 economic development, a number of new industrial estates are  developing  in last fifteen to sixteen years in Asansol area.  Mangalpur and Kannyapur are two of them in the Asansol Subdivision.  There is also a plan to develop industrial estates  adjacent to 55  KM area of G. T. Road from Durgapur to Barakar. Let's see how much  industrialization has taken place and how much employment has been  generated at the two industrial estates in the field of closed  industrial areas of Asansol.  
  
  Before 80's, renowned Hindusthan Pilkinton Glass Factory was closed.  After that Bengal Paper Mill was closed. From 90's the closing of the  industries took an accelaration and within last fifteen years a number  of industries have been closed very rapidly.
  We give a list of closed industries with manpower.
  
  Hindusthan Pilkinton Glass factory -1600
  Bengal Paper Mill -1500
  Bharat Aluminium Co. Ltd. -3000
  Burn & Co. 1&2 -1400
  Cycle Corporation -3000
  Indian Iron and Steel Company (Kulty)-3000
  
  Nearly  15000 workers have lost job due to closure of industry.  This is only reported and available data of closed industry. There are  a number of unreported and unregistered industries which have been  closed. The residential area of those industries are becoming abandoned  almost. Most of the workers left their companies' quarters to their  homeland or went to other places like Kolkata and also Asansol proper  in search of their lively hood. A vast area of Kulty Works of IISCO has  become a ghost area. The fifth largest Golf Ground of Kulty is  remaining in unused condition. However, within the short distance of  250-300 meters a new township is developing surrounding Kulty College  which was mostly a forest area. The residential area of the workers of  the glass factory is in the same condition. The officers quarters  became abundant. But the families of the workers, who have no other  alternative are remaining in the damaged quarters of the company. Near  about 200
 families are spending their life in a very miserable  condition. Most of the next generation of glass factory workers are day  labours or unemployed. Third generation of these families are mostly  illiterate due to poverty. One jute mill owner bought  the 150  bigha of land of glass factory including the area of quarters at a  paltry sum of 4.05 crores. He wants to evict the workers families. But  the people unitedly made resistance against the displacement without  the banner of any political party one and half years back. This glass  factory colony is also a subsidence prone area due to the unscientific  coal mining according to the official record of coal company. 
  
  Next we take a look at the development of new industries in place of  huge number of closed industry. One new characteristic is to form a  cluster with a group of different industries within the same place.  Mangalpur and Kannyapur industrial estates are two such clusters of  industries. Total area of these two estates is approximately 300 acres.  Now the question is from where land is made available for these types  of cluster of industries which form an industrial estate? 
  
  
  Asansol town has been developed in a very unplanned way with coal  industry, railways, and other industries. For planned development and  in the name of industrialization, West Bengal Government accrued land  according to the Land Accusation Act 1884 from land owners. Most of the  lands were one crop agriculture land. Compensation has been paid in  terms of land ceiling rate. Land less people were the 'bargadars' who  cultivated land by taking lease from land owners. A number of people  were agricultural labour.  The bargadars and agricultural labours  did not get any compensation due to the acqisition of land. These  people were assured of job in the future industry. In this land,  housing board made residential area and remaining area was handed over  to the ADDA in 1981. Creating infrastructures like water, electricity,  road for industry,  ADDA leased out land to the owners of  industries with a contract of 60 years. Adjacent Kannyapur industrial  estate township is
 developing gradually. 
  
  Most of the new industries are small and medium. One completely new  type of industry is Sponge Iron. Within the last 8-9 years, the demand  of steel is increasing in national and international market. But the  supply of scrap has been decreased gradually. So the demand of sponge  iron as a raw material of steel industry has increased. Not only sponge  iron, we see that in place of integrated steel and cement plants there  are small separate modules of plant for production of the material of  different stages. These small modules are called mini plants. In a  number of cases the separate modules of steel industry are established  by one single owner. Except steel there are a number of food industries  like biscuit, flour mills etc. There also some other industries like  aluminum, plastic, repairing job etc. At adjacent subdivision ,  Durgapur, there are a number of sponge iron industries and rolling  mills. The main reason to develop iron and cement industry in this 
 region is the availability of one of the main raw materials - coal and  slag for cement from IISCO. We mentioned in the first posting that  there exists a circle of "illegal" coal mines (which is not run by  Government body and license holders) . Most of the coal  supplied  to mini steel industries are from these illegal mines and from the  illegal theft of coal from ECL of Coal India. Slag is a waste material  of steel industry, IISCO. Total number of new industries are 19 and 11  at Mangalpur and Kannyapur respectively. Within these 7 are sponge  iron,   2  rolling mill, 7  cement companies and 9  food industries and  one Jute industry.
  
  Who are the workers of these new industries?
  
  The Chief minister of West Bengal is very much egger to claim that he  is the driver of the huge industrialization. This will create lots of  jobs for the people of west Bengal.   But I want to highlight  the problems of the claim of huge industrialization. Does this type of  industrialization really make any remarkable changes in employment?
  
  There are lots of confusion about the exact figure of the labour force  of the new industrial estates. Roughly 5000 employment has been created  at new industrial estates. Within the 5000 new employments, 3000 are in  jute industry of Mangalpur. From our survey we see that nearly 50 %  workers of new industries are from outside states and other districts  of West Bengal. In steel industry nearly 60% , in food 99% and in  cement and other nearly 30-40 % workers are from outside of Asansol. 
  
  In the language of the local workers of new industry
  "Why do the owners prefer to recruit local people. There is a  possibility to make disturbance by making demand for better wage and  facilities. They will do the unionism. The owners do not prefer it."
  "Is it possible to do the jobs of iron company. Who will agree to  consume the huge dust inside the shop. In the rolling mills workers are  bound to do the job in high temperature. Heat, dust, - all come from  company. So they need new workers".
  
  We see that some of the local and outside workers work under the  company directly. A section of workers are contract labour. Migrant  workers are mostly contractor's workers. They reside in the quarters of  the respective company within the campus of the company. The surrounded  campus have security at every possible entrance. All sorts of entry and  exits are monitored by the security. In the next section we see that  invariably no contractor wants to pay salary in time. So there are one  sorts of bindings to stay at the company. Otherwise you return without  money.
  There is a new feature like the recruitment procedure of  private  initiatives of coal that local people has been recruited through the  local political power. They are also compelled to be a member of the  respective union affiliated to the respective political power. Only for  one case there is a union of TMC. And for the rest 29 cases they are  under the grip of CITU. Interestingly there is no unit wise Tread Union  of the particular unit. Basically political power, mostly CPI(M),  controls the activity of the workers inside the factory and outside the  factory. Apparently there is an organized effort to control the  apparently unorganized labour force or informal ways of survival. In  the language of the workers-
  "They (CPI(M)) have started the new factory. So the CITU union does not  want to make much pressure to meet the demand of the workers."
  "If anybody join other union except the union of CPI(M) then it faces  complete resistance by police. Also the CITU does not do anything."
  "There is the 'raj' of CPI(M). So they control all union activities."
  
  Status of the workers in the documents of the Government:
  
  There are lots of confusion about the actual figure of the workers. At  the time of factory registration according to the factories Act, 1948  it is necessary to declare at the office of Directorate of factories  the maximum number of workers, including contractor labours, likely to  be employed in the factory on any day during the next 12 months. They  must  give further declaration of the updated manpower of every  year. After that all workers should be registered for the Employees  State Insurance Scheme at ESI corporation office. According to that  scheme, every registered worker gets the benefit of ESI scheme. One  major benefit is the 50 % payment for the sick leave and compensation  for disablement due to accident in the factory. We have collected the  data of the manpower from both office. Here we see that there is a gap  between the number of workers from Directorate of Factories office and  ESI. The number of ESI card holders is less than the total workers of 
 the factory for most of the cases. For 10 cases none of the declared  workers have been registered in the ESI scheme. Even we found more  workers than government documents at the time of survey and  conversations with the workers. We also found that there are  contractor's labours for most of the company. But contractor's labours  have no registration in the company. "Only the contractor have notes  about the workers." Even they do not make any payment document for the  contract labour. Here we like to mention that there are only two  inspectors to inspect the registered factories and also unauthorized  running factories. Grossly, the Factories Act, 1948, the Payment of  Wages Act, Maternity Act are under the purview of Directorate of  Factories. Payment of Wages Act regulates the payment of wages to  certain classes of persons employed in any factory or in industrial or  other establishments. The Act envisages maintenance of register of  wages, displaying notice and data
 of payment, timely payment of wages  at the end of the wage period and prevention of illegal and  unauthorized deduction of wages etc. So it is preferable to the  management to declare less number of workers than actual. 
  
  Wages
  
  It is necessary to mention actual payment to every individual worker  for last one year at the time of submission of the contribution of the  workers and also owners for ESI scheme. From there we got the wage  range of each factory. There are gross violations of minimum wages.  There are no minimum wage  for sponge iron, cement etc. For sponge  iron minimum wage inspector of labour commissioner's office compare the  wage of worker with the declared wage of Iron Foundry. Here we mention  the minimum and maximum gap of wages per month between declared minimum  wages for 2005 and actual wages for some industry. Generally the actual  wages are less than the declared minimum wages by the West Bengal  government.  
  
  Steel industry - Rs. 117 to 1027
  Flour mill - Rs. 1211 to 1656
  Bakery - Rs. 525 to 1513
  We came to know from the Deputy Labour Commissioner's office that in  most of the cases, owners and the union make a understanding with the  workers for low wages in the name of present crisis of industry and  market. But workers are compelled to agree to work at any wage in the  age of huge unemployment. 
  
  Most of the workers are under the condition no work and no pay. Here we  also see the same characteristic of the private initiative of coal. For  giving job opportunities to the maximum number of persons, one group of  workers do the job for the 15 days of a month and other group of  workers do the job for another 15 days. Some of the contractors make  this type of arrangement taking consent of both workers and factory  owners. Here we can not make any simple straight line between workers  and contractors  or workers and factory owners. Let's listen the  story of the cooperation between workers, contractors and factory  owners in the form of oral history.
  
  A worker of a mini cement factory:
  "I am doing work for 10 years in this factory from the very beginning.  In 1996 I got the job. We twelve had started work. Six are at the one  side of the rolling machine and rest are at the other side. There are  three women. We were recruited directly under the company. But there  are 15 to 20 contractors workers. Number of contractors workers are  varying seasonally. At the lean period (from July to January) we have  made adjustment by sitting with the owners and contractors and have  settled job rotationally because all get the opportunity to do the job.  We always cooperate with the owner. The CITU union of CPI(M) has made  several calls to join with them. I went to the office of CITU and said  that when we will fail to settle our demand by discussion then you  come. Otherwise there is no requirement of you. If you agree then we  will join CITU in the above terms. We do not allow any unionism in  every small events with your flag (jhanda). But owner said he will 
 close the factory because of market crisis. There are many new cement  companies. So he can not compete. We need to make some compromise for  our own existence."
  
  There is also dissatisfaction, anger against contractors and owners.  But in the era of huge number of unused labour they do not have the  courage (better to say they are compelled not) to make any voice  against exploitation in the name of industrialization. 
  
  Now we listen the story of one roaming contractor's worker of the Rolling Mill.
  
  "I am a resident of Nagra District of Rajasthan. First I worked at Rama  Machinary of Maddrass. They have not given regular salary. Than I went  to the factory of Sodepur which manufacture span pipe. There I worked  for five months. After that contractor did not give any work. Then I  went to work at PMT steel of Bombay and Sun steel of Ulubaria. After  completion of  work under contractors I was ditched by contractors  for wages at Raypur. Now I am in the Baba Ispat Company of Mangalpur.  After melting of sponge iron at furnace, melted iron is poured into the  casting for preparing 60 to 80 ton carton (iron rod). At the cutting  edge of the iron I remove carton one by one continuously. This type of  work requires massive manual labour. For five hours a day I get Rs.  2100 a month. I have no identity card, no ESI card( for getting  facility Employment insurance Scheme) and also no PF. According to my  ability, I do the work, then I will earn. But I got better wages at 
 Sodepur."
  
  Environment of work:
  
  This section can be started with the words of the previous worker of  Rajasthan. He said within six month he was an eyewitness of three  accidents. One worker injured by melting iron on his leg. He was a  local worker. When the medical cost of recovery was increasing upto a  certain limit then the owner sacked him from the job without any  compensation. The finger of two workers injured at the time of running.  Upper portion of finger was cut off.  Total number of reported  accident at ESI for accident benefit is 143 at the factories of  Asansol. 
  
  According to the Factory Act, owners are bound to provide the personal  safety equipments like helmet, shoes, gloves, mask etc. for protection  from accident and pollution. Most of  the companies are not keen  to give these equipments. According to the workers, proper safety  measures have not been followed. For every case we find that safety  rules and regulation of Factories act have been violated. Not only the  new factories are accident prone, these new mini plants create  pollution inside the factory and outside the factory. The factory  environment is full of black dust and fumes. There is no single case of  periodical medical check up of the workers of dangerous production  process. According to the ESI, number of patients of occupational  diseases is  increasing.
  
  The outside of the factories are polluted by the extract ?gases and  fumes which are full of the components of sulpher. The cultivated lands  become non-fertile due to the accumulation of black dust on the  surface. Villagers have shown the black paddy with black rice. Water  bodies become polluted. Villagers are affected by the pollution.
  
  This is the situation where new industrialization only creates nearly  5000 employments where only reported 15000 workers have lost their jobs  due to the closure of main industries. There are also unreported huge  number of loss of ways of earning from the ancillary and the urban  market which developed with the big industries. Not only is it  comparable in quantity but also in quality of the status of workers.  The new industrial policy of West Bengal government gives some facility  to the industrialist for investment like state capital investment  subsidy, interest subsidy, waiver of electricity duty, remission of  stamp duty etc. Parallely the new or modified labour laws are going to  be passed by which the existing pro workers' restrictions have to be  removed to facilitate the investment. Also we see that the threat of  huge unused labour prepare the ground for change in labour law with 12  working hours and no restriction of retrenchment. But the workers are  not
 ready to participate in the market with very low wages. Also there  is no guaranty of job. From the interview with the workers we got the  impression that owners of the new industries are used to retrench any  worker at any time as they wish. Till today no organised resistance has  built up against such exploitation. So the new employment at Mangalpur  and Kannyapur industrial estates are not qualitatively comparable with  the employment at integrated plants. There is a good example within the  Asansol subdivision that average per day earning of the workers of the  big integrated plants of privately run Damodar cement is more than 400.  In contrast the average per day earnings of the workers of new  industries is less than Rs. 80.
  The loss of agricultural land or the loss due to industrial pollution  has not been addressed here. If the loss of man-days can be calculated  for the above loss then we will come nearer to the picture of actual  development due to industrialization. 
  
  
		
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