Some Labour Questions and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

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Some Labour Questions and Mahatma Gandhi

 

During the pilgrimage to Madras and Palni the following document signed by 259 persons was handed to me at tremendously large meeting of labourers at Golden Rock: We the workers of the South Indian Railway beg to place before you some of our major problems with a view to get your support. Nearly 2, 64,000 workers are going to be retrenched all over the railways. In South Indian Railway alone, 10,000 will be retrenched and till now more than 2,000 have been discharged. The Government contemplates absorption of ex-service men in place of railway men, thus putting us against the ex-soldiers. We have been demanding a minimum living wage of Rs. 30 per mensem. At present the lowest wage is Rs. 8 to Rs. 15, and a majority of us receive less than Rs. 18 per mensem. Out of 42,000 railway employees, only 8,000 are provided with quarters, of which the majority are infested with insanitary conditions, and are without proper ventilation. You may be aware of the decision of the All-India Railway men’s Federation demanding adjudication or a court of enquiry, if they refuse to redress our grievances and accept the suggestions.

The suggestions were intended for improvements in the railway system and the condition of the employees. For your reference we are giving below the sixteen suggestions forwarded to the Railways Board and the Government by the Federation:

1. Reduction of work to 40 hours per week as a first step and further to 40 hours per week for all the staff including running staff without fall in wages.

2. Introduction of weekly calendar days off for all the railway men.

3. Leave reserve to be increased to 25%.

4. Reduction of rail length for engineering gang men.

5. Extension of leave facilities to daily rated and inferior service staff on par with subordinates.

6. All the work now done through contract labour should be taken over departmentally.

7. Reduction of mileage for overhaul of locomotives, wagons and carriages.

8. Expansion of workshop production, namely, construction of boilers, engine parts, etc.

9. Manufacture of locomotives, carriages and wagons in the Indian Railways workshops.

10. Rebuilding of third-class carriages so as to provide better facilities for passengers such as bath-rooms, fans and sleeping accommodation for long distance travel, etc.

11. Reopening all the lines that were closed and the restoration of all the trains stopped during the period of war and further expansion of services to meet the needs of the public.

12. A programme of house building with a view to provide decent houses for all railway men.

13. Construction of new lines to suit the needs of the country.

14.  Laying down of double tracks wherever necessary.

15. Introduction of rail-motor transport to the distant towns and villages where railways cannot reach.

16. R. A. F. workshops now controlled by railways to be maintained and extended to serve the need of aviation. In the demand of ours for full work, living wages, proper housing facilities, etc., we request you to support us and give a lead in the matter to the country and force the Railway Board to accept the same and save thousands of railway men and others from unemployment, misery and poverty.

If the workers are to be retrenched in order to make room, as alleged in the letter, for ex-soldiers, it is, in my opinion, doubly wrong. Wrong for the ex-soldier in that they will be favoured, and a soldier who accepts favoured treatment is no solider. The second wrong will be to the men to be retrenched who, for no fault of their own, will be thrown out of employment. It will not do to say they were temporary hands. The State has to find work for all unemployed persons. Coming to the railway men’s demands, items Nos. 1-9 and No. 12 fall, in my opinion, within the sphere of labour, but whether they are reasonable or not cannot be said without hearing the railway authorities’ side. They should be referred to arbitration. They cannot be made a subject of strike, before the process of arbitration has been gone through. Any lightning strike is a form of dictation which is dangerous. Items Nos. 10, 11 and 13-16, cannot legitimately be demanded by labourers. They are passengers’ grievances and passengers, i.e., the public, can take them up. Item No. 10 I would consider quite extravagant. By far the largest number of passengers belongs to the third class, and I have no doubt they deserve progressively better treatment, not the first and second class. Railway-cars of the not distant future will have no classes.

Classless society is the ideal, not merely to be aimed at but to be worked for and, in such society there is no room for classes or communities. Until that time is arrived at, first and second-class comforts be standardized and lowered where necessary and all attention bestowed upon third-class passengers. But I cannot visualize a time when third class carriages, no matter how distant of the journey may be, can carry bathing accommodation for tens of thousands of travelers. What is required is proper bathing arrangement for third-class passengers at railway stations. Third-class passengers are the most neglected in India. Railway-cars and railway stations should be utilized for proper education of the public in sanitation and cleanliness. This is not the case today. And the quicker Hindu and Mohammedan tea or water distinctions disappear the better. Why should the State recognize these unnatural and irreligious distinctions? Those who consider themselves defiled by service rendered by person not belonging to their own persuasion may well be left to their own resources. The association for railway passengers’ relief should certainly ventilate grievances before the authorities. Their main work should be to conduct sustained education among the passengers as to their own duty toward one another and about observing laws of cleanliness and hygiene.  

Reference:

Harijan, 17-2-1946