CITU, the CPM’s trade union arm, is making a rich harvest from the migrant labour force that is up for grabs in Kerala. The membership drive among the migrant labour has reaped rich dividends with the organisation claiming to have added over 10,000 new members in a matter of four months.
The vigorous drive is targeted at improving the CITU’s current fourth position in the country in terms of total membership. Though CITU membership has been showing a significant rise every three years, from 38 lakh in 2007 to 50 lakh in 2010 and now to 68 lakh in 2013, the organizational target is to achieve 20 per cent increase in the referenda held every three year. But, this was not met in 2013 which invited criticism.
The migrant labour hail mainly from Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and Jharkhand and are employed as manual labour int he fields, construction sites and by small and big industries.
CITU general secretary Elamaram Kareem claimed the initiative was primarily aimed at improving the living conditions of the labourers. “Though these labourers have become inevitable to our state, they live in inhuman conditions, barring a few locations. They are brought and exchanged like slaves by contractors,” he said.