International Labour Day, popularly known as May Day, was once a grand occasion in Davangere, known for its prestigious textile mills. Today it has become a mere symbolic programme with not even a hundred people taking part.
Textile mills here had their beginnings before independence, and with the opening of many mills, the labour era also commenced.
Thousands of mill workers settled down with their families here, and factory life evolved in this once predominantly farming belt.
As the textile business grew and with it the export of cotton, trade union activity also rose.
The growing labour force and its unions joined hands to make May Day a grand fest.
In those days, the May Day procession used to be a mile long as thousands turned up in red dresses and raised slogans for the welfare of workers.
“It is now like a dream for us,” said Hanumanthappa, a retired mill worker who now earns his livelihood in a mandakki (puffed rice) shop. The good times did not last.
The industrial recession, slump in cotton market and entry of readymade clothes among others slowed the business of textile mills in a big way. Many mills started closing down in this tough economic environment.
When the Narasimha Rao government signed the World Trade Organisation’s Dunkel proposal and the GATT agreement, both of which badly affected the textile trade, the mills in Davangere started further declining.
Privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation were a death blow to the textile mills, and the majority of mill workers who were uneducated or less educated had a hard time finding alternatives to earn a livelihood.
Many sought work at roadside eateries, petty shops, cycle repair shops and other workshops while others returned to their villages to take up farming.
Privatisation proved to be a catastrophe for the workers, said H K Ramachandrappa, AITUC and CPI state leader here.
Rural workers suffered the most as they lost jobs and monetary benefits.
Now another May Day programme is being held in Davangere, but the function has lost its value and meaning and is a mere ritual.