Faced with declining numbers in fresh recruitments of cadres, the CPI(M) is looking to outsource ideology in Kerala. For this purpose, the party has roped in CITU, its trade union arm, to harvest Kerala’s migrant labour force that is up for grabs in the state. If party sources are to be believed, the initiative has reaped rich dividends with the organisation claiming to have added over 10,000 new members in four months. Though CITU membership has been showing a rise every three years, from 38 lakh in 2007 to 50 lakh in 2010 and now to 68 lakh in 2013, the organisational target is to achieve 20 per cent increase in the referenda held every three year. However, this was not met in 2013 which invited criticism.
Other trade unions are expected to follow suit, sparking a war for the pie of over 25 lakh migrant labourers who hail mainly from Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and Jharkhand and are employed as manual labour in the 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 and are forced to live in shabby and unhygienic rooms. Except the construction sector, wages are low in other small and large scale industries. The organisation had come across several cases of exploitation and took a firm stance in each instance to end their misery,” he said.
Kareem admitted it was not easy to work among migrant labourers. “Except those from West Bengal, all others are clueless about trade unionism,” he said.
CITU now enlists migrant labourers in existing unions like the construction workers union, skilled workers union etc. Though the organisation aims to register around 40,000 persons this year, the task would not be easy, the volunteers said.
“It’s difficult to educate them as most of them are illiterates. We convene gatherings at work sites and explain to them the benefits of being a part of trade unions,” said Mannaram Ramachandran, general secretary of the construction workers union, who works as a volunteer, given his fluency in spoken Hindi.
A study conducted by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT) for the Labour Department found 630 immigrants come to Kerala every day in search of work. It recorded that their wages range from Rs 350 to Rs 900. CITU’s recruitment drive may benefit migrant laborers initially, but the recurrent clashes between locals and them do not bode well for the trade union in the long run.