TIRUCHY: For more than a decade in the late 1960s and 70s, Chandrasekar Krishnasamy was just another pair of hands in Tiruchy’s artificial gem-cutting units, slicing and polishing stones day after day while middlemen skimmed off his hard-earned wages. Nearly 60 years later, Chandrasekar, now 73, reflects on his journey — freeing himself from the shackles of exploitation to serving as a guide and mentor for many others who went through such ordeals.
Born in Sivaganga in 1953 to Krishnasamy and Annapooranam, Chandrasekar saw tough days early on when his father’s tent cinema business went downhill, forcing the family to shift base to Tiruchy. “I had to quit studies after Class 7 and take up work to support my family. In 1968, I joined a gem-cutting unit in Murungapettai. Wages were routed through middlemen, who retained a portion of our earnings. Back then, we had no idea about the concept of bonded labour,” recalls Chandrasekar.
He says, “A turning point for many of us in the industry was in 1978, when a unit owner demanded Rs 15,000 from workers. Some of them were even subject to violence. This incident led the workers to collectively organise, leading to the formation of the Tamil Nadu Synthetic Gem Cutting Labour Welfare and Protection Association.” Through the association, workers began raising concerns related to wages and working conditions. In 1981, during the tenure of late chief minister MG Ramachandran, a government order on minimum wages for the sector was issued, he says, adding that a committee later fixed wage rates in 1985, even though some workers considered them inadequate.
After the early 1980s, Chandrasekar ventured out and established his own gem-cutting business on a small scale. While this marked a shift in his life, his involvement with labour issues in the sector continued. Efforts were also made to identify bonded labourers and in 1984, documents related to such practices were submitted to the Tiruchy district administration. Chandrasekar estimates that between 1985 and 2000, around 500 bonded labourers from the gem-cutting sector and other industries in districts such as Karur and Pudukkottai were released.
This, however, did not translate to stability for the workers as some of them returned to the same exploitative system, furthered by gaps in rehabilitation measures. Starting from the year 2000, the association began maintaining records of released workers and coordinating with officials to track rehabilitation efforts closely. A Tamil publication documenting bonded labour practices and rehabilitation processes was also brought out.
Several individuals, part of these interventions, recall the transition. K Soundarajan, a former gem-cutting worker from Manachanallur, said he later started a small business with financial assistance he received after his release. “We were not aware of the cruel system we were trapped in.”
Similarly, P Kannusamy from Kalthachapatti said his family worked as bonded labourers at a quarry for nearly a decade before being released in 1998.
The artificial gem-cutting industry itself has declined over the years, particularly after cheaper, imported stones entered the market. “The exploitation, I believe, has only taken on other forms,” he says, while referring to cases such as overseas employment and digital scams.
He has also been associated with the Tamil Nadu Anti-Corruption Movement, started in 2001 by retired government officials under the leadership of former PWD chief engineer CS Kuppu Raj. As its Tiruchy district president, Chandrasekar says he has been assisting people in approaching vigilance authorities with their complaints.
Even his engagement with anti-corruption work, he noted, came from observing persistent challenges. “I believe the biggest problem is that people don’t recognise exploitation when they are part of it,” notes Chandrasekar, while also acknowledging the need for a different approach going forward.
The means of exploitation remain on a par with the systems meant to dismantle them. However, the good fight Chandrasekar has put up attests to what organised labour can achieve and instils hope in the fight against exploitation that is far from over.