[Reader-list] 1st posting

Wed Jan 25 12:30:33 IST 2006

  Sudipta Paulmailto:sdipta_paul at yahoo.com wrote:

Title: Response of the labour force to the changing urban formation in Asansol industrial area  who survives and who cannot.

Area: Asansol industrial area, a subdivision of Burdwan district of West Bengal.

Professionally I am an electrical engineer and an

employee of West Bengal State Electricity Board. Last

year (2004-2005) I have done a full time Research

Training Programme (RTP) from Centre for Studies in

Social Science, Calcutta (CSSSC). I have just

completed a project entitled Collection of Oral

History of Coal Workers with Special Emphasis on

Impact of Outsourcing for V.V. Giri National Labour

Institute. Also I am actively involved with a local,

by-monthly little magazine UDYOG about social,

political and cultural issues related to Asansol area

of West Bengal for last four years. We have an

aspiration to give it an orientation towards honest

and alternative media. Also we are trying to build an

organization, Adhikar which will document the

conditions of the unorganised labour force in the

Asansol area.

About our work

We came to know from the history of the Asansol-Ranigange 

coal field area that Prince Dwarakanath Tagore, 

grandfather of Rabindranath  was the first Indian 

businessman of coal. Bengal Coal was

the company Dwarakanath founded.Till the establishment 

of rail lines, coal was transported through river. In 1854, 

first rail line in India was established up to Ranigange.

After the railway linkage up to Asansol, the city began to

flourish on both sides of G.T. Road. Due to the easy

availability of coal and the abundance of  water from

the river Damodar and near by sources of necessary

minerals,  steel industry was established at Kulty at

the end of nineteenth century. After that gradually

different industries flourished in that area. As the

Asansol town was growing, small urban formations were

taking shape near the clusters of collieries within 

the Asansol subdivision. However, all these urban

formations till now exist in very close tie with the

rural areas. The present scenario is one of decay of

the old industry and the closure of the private

sector. 

The situation has changed in the new globalized world.

Unemployment and with it unused labour force is

increasing rapidly.  There is no new major alternative

source of income which can generate sustainable job

opportunity. A small section of workers are getting

employment at new industries under contractors with 

the salary near about one third of the salary of the 

organised workers. These contract workers are unorganised 

till now. But there is an organized effort by the

party in power to maintain its full dominance on this

unorganized labour force or informal ways of survival.

It is the party that decides who will get the work and

who will not. This way in the apparently unorganized

form there is an underlying regulation or organized

effort that serves two purposes. One is the

maintenance of control by the dominant parliamentary

party. Second one is to check the unrest among the

people evicted from their own livelihood and

mainstream employment. 

Objective of the Project: 

The main objective of the project is to sketch the

response of the labour force (Subaltern people) to

the changes in Asansol industrial area in the form of

narratives.

The labour force can be broadly categorized into - (a)

traditional/organised labour force,

(b) people newly adopted to industry and (c) who are

excluded from industry.  

    Is the labour force able to adopt them to the changed situation? If anybody can, what is the process of adoption/inclusion and if anybody cannot what is the process of exclusion?
   What are the major factors that determine their response to the changed situation?
   What are the new mechanisms to control the new workers of these new industries - within the trade union and/or outside?

We will also try to give some impression about the feelings of one category of workers about the other. Does the parallel existence of old organised and new unorganised workers lead to any conflict or not?

Based on the response we can try to address the question - for whom these development projects or the new industries.

Now I give about the first phase of work.

It is necessary to identify the changes take place at

the Asansol subdivision within 15 years after new

economic policy. But the process of urbanization has

not been stopped. The epicenter of urbanization has

been shifted from industrialization to the Urban development like entertainment park, real estate business, different urban facility etc. The main changes are listed bellow.

1.      Changes in the Coal sectors.

2.      Changes in the manufacturing sectors

3.      Changes in the urban formation  

  a.    Shifting of the workers from the residence of the

closed industry

  b.    Establishment of new industry

  c.    Hawker eviction

  d.    Establishment of new township with closed enclaves

and shopping malls

4.    Changes in labour force.

Already we have collected the documents of the changes

in the coal sectors and very few of the manufacturing

sectors(steel). Now we start to collect the

information about the  newly developed industries like

sponge iron, cement factory and other small scale

industries.

So our first work is to collect the information about

the new changes at this area. Then we will compile a preliminary 

report of the changes. Paralally we will make

visit for selection of interviewee and take

representative photographs like Hawker eviction,

hoarding of the new town-ships etc. Recently we came

in contact with the South Bengal Association of

Photographers. We ask them for the photographs of the past

events. They have agreed to give us. We think to make an

photography exhibition about Urban Development at the end of March at the Seminar of our Magazine on The question of

Development and the Future of  this Coal field / industrial city.

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