Healthy Life

Wealthy life

Know your rights,

For future bright

Swasthya,Suraksha aur Adhikar,Sampurn Jeevan ka vichaar Fight for labour rights in Stone mines

We tried to restore the dignity of the mine labourers by helping them get a better treatment in terms of health, safety and security from the contractors and mine owners.We help them to get organized together to seek a better deal for themselves.We make them aware about the health & safety hazards of their occupation.

Population: 10,000 app.The village is Belwa Ranaji with stone mines scattered all along the plateau.Strong winds, sand hills, stone mines are found in abundance. All the village folks are involved in stone mines as owners, contractors or labourers.Labourers are unorganised,illiterate and alcoholic and are easy prey for cunning contractors and mine owners.No interest in education and child labour in dangerous mines is rampant.

Students felt the need of educating labourers about the hazards of working in mines. Many students recounted the times when their parents fell ill or cough badly when they return back after long day work from the mines.Students also felt the dangers to their studies when contractors come to their houses suggesting their parents to involve them in mines.Students felt sad and angry when they realize that their parents are being fleeced by the contractors.

The Reasons behind the Idea1.Deterioating health of a few parents.2.Parents insisting on their children to work along with them in mines.3.Falling attendance & increased dropouts.4.Deep nexus between mine owners and contractors in terms of labour engagement.5.Lack of first aid and other security measures at the site of mines.6.No medical or insurance cover for labourers.7.Non compliance of labour laws.

We imagine a campaign where we will have to organize people and make them realize their duty towards their health.Our campaign was fraught with dangers as a group of people were benefiting from illiteracy & sustaining it to further their profits.Future of their children was taken as a bait to make them realize the folly of their attitude.The language, tone & tenure of the campaign needs to be scrutinized at every step as any misstep may have caused more harm than benefit.We seek our rights for our present & future

We imagine a campaign aimed at changing the attitude of people towards their health. We thought of a struggle where we will have to make realize people about their rights and the ability to ask for them. We were out to organize loose groups of people to set up pressure groups to seek welfare measures from profit oriented owners & contractors.

1.Students were divided into teams.2.Literature on unorganized labour acts,govt facilities for labourers,responsibilties of employers and health hazards was made available to students to equip them with the necessary information for the cause.3.The entire plan of seven days was discussed for execution.

Data Collection1.Hard Facts2.Social facts.

Study of the village1.Number of mines2.Number of labourers3.Type of labour4.Facilities available at the site.5.Case studies of families involved in mines.6.Literacy levels among labourers.7.Economic conditions.8.Social evils among labourers.

We will do1.Visits to the site of stone mines.2.Survey of few mines.3.Survey of families of labourers.4.Talking to the mine owners & contractors.5.Liasoning with the Govt department handling mines.6.Meeting influential people to build a solid campaign

We started the campaign by organizing a rally titled Rights March in the village to create awareness about the labour rights. The rally was attended by villagers and it act as the announcement of our campaign.

Rights March act as an ice breaker & it was a huge gathering of villagers. A group of students brief groups of

people about the rights available for them as in our constitution.

A play depicting present and future life of a

labourer.The hardships being faced by all in the

family

It presented two families involved in labourThe play depicts the plight & miseries of families.How illiteracy has played foul in their life leading to poverty.How they are deceived by middleman & contractors.

21st Sept 2012.To start the campaign an exhibition cum rally was organized in the village.The rally has slogans on exploitation of laborers.Through the rally, students seek awareness among the villagers about the dangers to their health for working in mines.The rally has 3 meeting points where gathered people were addressed by the students.The rally gave us the start as the topic taken up was about the welfare & people felt related to it.Rest of the day was utilized in slogan writing.

22nd SeptemberA meeting with the mine owners & contractors to apprise them of our mission & to cast aside their apprehensions. We told them that a healthy, aware and sound laborer will be beneficial for them in the long run.Students also met Village Head to seek his help & utilize his influence for our cause.We felt empowered after these two meetings.23rd SeptemberEach Team was assigned an area to meet people at their homes & to share our campaign.We were surprised to find a majority of people excited about the talks of their welfare but their lack of knowledge was holding them out.Points from labour laws and labour health manuals were shared with themPeople were also invited to participate in the rights march.

The change calendar

24th September 12Rights March was organized in village & was flagged by village Head Man.People joined us in large numbers.Provocative slogans against the mine owners & contractors were avoided.It was an appeal and not an act of defiance.The rally paused at three points, skit was performed and was addressed by influential people.A poster exhibition was held to connect people with the cause through pictures and graphics.

A few contractors became big hurdle in our Rights Campaign as he feared that united village will harm his interests & income as a middle man

between the mine owners & labourers will vanish.

26th Sept 2012.To further our campaign, Nukkad Natak titled ‘Haq Se Bol Jeevan Anmol' was organized at the village centre. The play highlighted the sufferings of families & loss of health. The main character sought his rights to provide dignity to his family but was harassed badly.The play presented two families, one illiterate and other little aware about their rights.It emphasizes that it is time that people get serious about their rights,health,security and a better future for their children.It also highlighted the loss of innocence among the children working in mines.

27th September 12Adhikar Samiti: Our efforts & intensive campaigning leads to the coming together of people to form a group to visit and talk with the mine owners to negotiate a better deal for the labourers.A resolution was passed by the Panchayat that no person from the village must act as middleman and mine owners must deal with labourers directly.The support to the campaign from the media helped in activating the local labour office in enforcing the labour laws in the mines.Mine owners agreed to incur the medical cost of the labourers and to set up emergency first aid facility at the mines.All were in agreement that no child will be allowed in the mines.Safety measures like mask and helmets will be introduced.

It was a campaign related to the welfare of the people, so it strikes an instant cord with the masses.For the first time people came to realize that there has be to be a mutual relationship between the employee and employer.The prospects for a better future for their children helped them connect easily with the campaign.The formation of pressure groups fast paced the direct intervention of the mine owners as any loss of time on their part will effect their profit.We cash in on the concern of parents about their children future & presentation of a horrible future, if same conditions prevails, make them realize their follies. The biggest achievement that we can consider is that we were able to make people realize the importance of health, safety and security.

School leader: Mr. Sumer Singh Inda