Aruna Roy was awarded the Times Fellowship for the year 1991 and
this publication is the result of the work carried out in this
capacity during the period May 1992 to April 1993. The support
of the Times of India Group is gratefully acknowledged.

LIVING WITH DIGNITY AND SOCIAL
JUSTICE - RURAL WORKERS
RIGHTS TO CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Study put together by Aruna Roy,
with Nikhil Dey and Shanker Singh
As we put together the sum of our written effort, we begin to feel deflated as always. There is so much written and written so well, that another effort always seems redundant. We quote from each other and generally say the same things. When we act it is different, because it is a discovery. But the written word has got discredited. A surplus of verbiage has made the literate world sick of documents of any sort on the one hand; on the other it has no relevance to the illiterate universe. So we begin on an apologetic note. Hoping that someone , somewhere, may find the document useful. The work it reflects upon has energy and complexity. It is a world where gesture, expression, stance, song, dance and drama add to the richness of what we want to say. Not to mention the joy of confidence, articulation, and victories, which seem to shrink in a larger context and fall within the mundane. One hopes that some of the energy of the action gets reflected in the written word.
An academic friend once said that those of us who work `at the grass roots, should tell our stories and let the pundits conceptualise.' So, here is our story..............
Acknowledgements
The study has been a collective effort of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan. We are also grateful to a number of others who have contributed in many ways to the study.
We are specially grateful for Lakshmi Chand Jain's gentle and unobtrusive support to the group through out the duration of the Study.
We are grateful to the SWRC, Tilonia for allowing us the use of their computer facilities . We are particularly grateful to Indrani for her cheerful and patient efforts at typing the manuscript.
The Study was made possible by the fellowship from the Times of India awarded to Aruna Roy for the year 1991.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION : WHOSE PERCEPTION?....................1
PART I
WORK AND LABOUR, CURRENT PERCEPTIONS
CHAPTER I: THE TRADITIONAL SECTOR.................12
Feudalism
Caste Barriers
Traditional Skills
The Rawats
Rawats and Feudalism
Sanskritisation or Modernisation?
The Worst of Both Worlds
CHAPTER II: THE PRIVATE SECTOR.....................20
The Farmers
The traders
Contractors and Mining
Migration
Alienation
Fragmentation
Living conditions
Health
Mechanisation
Layoffs
CHAPTER III: THE GOVERNMENT SECTOR.................33
Famine "Relief" and Employment
Effect of confusing Terminology
Who Works?
Work and Wages
The Argument of the Workers
The way the wage-worker understands work
Piece Rate and Task Basis
The `Lazy' Worker or `Wily' Government?
Asset Creation
Quantum of Employment
And Unemployment
CHAPTER IV: SELF PERCEPTION........................44
The Karmic Law
The Unskilled Workers
Whose Logic?
The Hierarchy of Wages
The Low Self Image
MY INITIAL PERCEPTION......................49
PART - II
CHANGING PERCEPTIONS
CHAPTER V: A PROCESS OF EMPOWERMENT...............53
The Sangathan
The Individual and the Collective
The Primary Issue
Wages and Value
Work and Production
Markets
An Ethical Base
Committment
Ideology and Action
MY CHANGING PERCEPTION....................68
In a voluntary agency
Land Allotees
CHAPTER VI: WORKING OUT A DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM....74
UNDERSTANDING FORCES WHICH MOULD ATTITUDES
Cultural Environment
Religion
Consumerism and Culture
Institutionalized learning
The Educational Institutions
The Primary Schools
Middle and Secondary Schools
The Lessons Imparted
Higher Learning
The Political Environment
The New Economic Policy
CHAPTER VII. UNDERSTANDING ONE'S OWN STRENGTH....103
The Individual and the Collective
Womens Empowerment and the Sangathans growth
Creativity - whose choice?
Empowerment and creativity
Ideas born locally
Perceiving the Government
Feudal hangover
Democratic Government
Development programmes
Industrial development in rural areas
Agricultural policy
Natural resources
MY CURRENT PERCEPTION....................127
The Shift to Devdungri
PART III
CHANGED PERCEPTIONS AND WIDENING HORIZONS
CHAPTER VIII: THE INTERVENTIONS..................129
Creating an atmosphere in the area
The workshop
The Right to information
Minimum wages
Time rate, piece rate and task basis
Late payments
Ban on contractors
Supervision
Corruption
The ration shop in Devdungri
The private sector
Note books
Why the building collective
CHAPTER IX: CHANGED PERCEPTIONS..................161
May day'93
The new economic policy and workers rights
Human rights vs development rights
Widening Horizons
REFERENCES PAGE
1. Fuglesang, Andreas About Understanding
Dag Hammarskjold Foundation
Sweden - 1982 ....................24
2. Dogra, Bharat India, Hope and Despair
Fragile Democracy................259
NFS publication
3. Dogra, Bharat Ibid.............................259
4. Beteille, Andre Edited by,
Equality and Inequality
Theory and Practice
Oxford University
Press.-1983.......................22
5. Singh, Shankar Seminar 408 Aug. 1993
Culture, Communication and
Change............................39
6. Herskovits, Cultural Anthropology,
Melville J. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co,
New Delhi - 1969.................311
7. Herskovits,
Melville J. Ibid.............................150
8. Gandhi M.K. Collected Works Vol XXIII,
Navjivan Trust 1924..............244
9. Jain L.C. The Eye - Vol II,No 1
January-February 1993.............30
10. Fuglesang, Andreas About Understanding
Dag Hammarskjold Foundation
Sweden - 1982 ....................22
11. Jain L.C. Ibid..............................33
12. Jain L.C. Ibid..............................34
13. Sharma, B.D. Report of the Commissioner for
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes
Twenty nineth report 1987-89.......6
14. Beteille, Andre Equality and Inequalty,
Theory and Practice.
Some Aspects of inequality
in Rurual India,
A Sociological Perspective
Anand Chakravarti................129
15. Fuglesang, Andreas About Understanding
Dag Hammarskjold Foundation
Sweden - 1982 ....................23
16. Sen, Amartya On Ethics and Economics,
Oxford University Press-1990
The Royer Lectures
Series Editor, John M.Letiche
University of California,
Berkley..........................20
17. Sen, Amartya Ibid.............................16
18. Sen, Amartya Ibid.............................18
19. Sharma, B.D. Report of the Commissioner for
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes
Twenty nineth report 1987-89......6
20. Sharma, B.D. Ibid..............................6
21. Leacock, Stephen Hellement of Hickonomies
Newyork, Dodd Mean and Co. 1936..75
22. Jain L.C. The Eye - Vol II,No 1
January-February 1993............34
23. Sen, Amartya On Ethics and Economics,
Oxford University Press-1990
The Royer Lectures
Series Editor John M.Letiche
University of California,
Berkley.......................... 9
24. Krishen Kumar, Kak Enucleated Universe,
An ethnography of the other
America and of Americans as the
other ...........................34
25. Krishen Kumar, Kak Ibid.............................34
26. Schumacher, E.F Small is Beautiful
Blond and Briggs Ltd 1973
London..........................193
27. Gupta, Arvind Science through Crafts
Eye I, Vol II, Jan-Feb.1993......20
28. Fuglesang, Andreas About Understanding,
Dag Hammarskjold Foundation
Sweden - 1982 ...................24
29. Fuglesang, Andreas Ibid.............................24
30. Schumacher, E.F Small is Beautiful
Blond and Briggs Ltd 1973
London..........................147
31. Dogra, Bharat Trade, Aid and Debt in an
Unequal World
NFS Publication 1991............18
32. Dogra, Bharat Ibid.............................47
33. Dogra, Bharat Ibid.............................45
34. Dogra, Bharat Ibid.............................39
35. Roy, Aruna Seminar 376, The Eighth Plan
December 1990,
A Woman's view.................. 34
36. Maithrey, Krishnaraj Indian Association of Women's Studies
The New Economic Policy and
Women
A Collection of Background
Papers for the Sixth National
Conference of the Indian
Association of
Womens Studies 1993..............52
37. Roy, Aruna Seminar 376 The Eighth Plan
December 1990,
A Woman's view.................. 31
38. Ela, Bhat Economic Times,
January 15th 1992
39. Seabrook Jeremy, N.G.Os and Social Change
Shotton John Collection of Essays
Hegde and Dogra NFS India Publication..........10
40. Seabrook Jeremy Ibid...........................11
Shotton John
Hegde and Dogra
41. Sharma, B.D. Report of the Commissioner for
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes, Twenty nineth report
1987-89.......................[ii]
INTRODUCTION: WHOSE PERCEPTION?
" I sit on a man's back, choking him, and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by any means possible, except getting off his back." - Leo Tolstoy
The political human being has evolved categories of thought to enforce a pattern on the mind. Paradigms and logical frameworks are facilitators. When categories take over the mind it cannot think creatively. To actively seek change one must be able to break the categories and see things differently. Inevitably there is a release of energy, dynamism and positive action.
The effort of the last year can be seen as a change in collective perceptions. Perceptions shape our lives.There are attitudes that allow for exploitation without opposition from exploited groups. The caste system for instance, is a finely developed method of such exploitation.
Despite our years of familiarity with the caste system, the controls its hierarchies exercise is baffling. What is it that allows the most reprehensible form of apartheid to continue despite the apparent opposition of political parties and the established Constitution? What is it that allows birth to determine occupation regardless of individual aptitude and desire? What are the mechanisms that so successfully fragment society and prevent revolt against a system which has debasement woven into its fabric? And most baffling of all, what is the mechanism used to capture the psyche of a human being, so that even the most exploited in the hierarchy articulates the same view and value system that the one at the top of the hierarchy does? It defies logic that the one who suffers should support a system that is the cause of such suffering.
But logic has to also take into account centuries of successful social conditioning. Over generations, systems of
exploitation have been so finely tuned and society so carefully ordered that the" History of all class struggles" has been lost along the way. Centuries before Aldous Huxley,and George Orwell,the Indian ruling classes understood that the mind rules the body, and therefore he who rules the minds of others need hardly use brute force. Religion, culture, fear of the unknown, institutions of learning, have all been used to mould attitudes of both the oppressor and the oppressed. It is a system of conditioned control that makes our new Western commercial conquerors look like amateurs. Advertising agencies seek to mould attitudes in a manner which causes a consumer to buy something he or she does not need. But the Indian social system has controlled not just the tastes or pockets of its most disadvantaged members, but every aspect of their lives.
For someone viewing society from the outside many of the values seem illogical. It seems hard to understand how and why the oppressed within society continue to accept domination. However, it is also an axiomatic truth that every oppressed group wants change. What many outsiders do not easily understand is that people within that society are far more aware of the mechanism of control than can be seen from the outside. They know from instinct the forces ranged against them. The oppressed of a society are the only group with a vested interest in change. That is why they are also in the best position to be able to look for the modes and paradigms of change. Imposing solutions from the outside are bound to fail for just these reasons. Formulating an alternative point of view from within has its own logical sequencing.
When society arbitrarily ascribes value to certain kinds of work and occupations, it establishes the norms of the powerful in order to maintain an imbalance. This combination of norms takes the shape of an attitude which is forcefully imposed. When that attitude becomes part of the self perception of the exploited, the success from the point of view of the dominant group is
complete. The society is "peaceful" with a docile exploited group.
In their search for greater equality and change, the exploited group can only rely on collective strength in order to oppose these established norms. A successful campaign for change would have three stages in replacing existing norms.
The first is the recognition by the exploited, that a set of norms are responsible for their oppression.This is accompanied by a growing sense of indignation at the injustices being perpetrated by the controlling groups. Understanding of the mechanisms of such oppression leads to a desire for change and an attempt to identify methods for bringing about such change.This oppression operates through economic and social control. As soon as these mechanisms are identified and accepted by the group of people who want change, a new perception is formed.
In their search for dignity and social justice, the poor and the oppressed need to be able to articulate their own point of view on what changes are required. The fact that they have been unable to find the time and space to even formulate, let alone articulate such a point of view is one of the reasons for their oppression. When such a position begins to be articulated, it will obviously run counter to the dominant point of view. It is a world view which will not only project a different "dream" but will also use a new set of indicators to evaluate society as it exists. As a result, it is very likely that two seemingly logical but contrary, systems of thought compete for dominance in society. This is a time of change. An indicator of a society in transition.
When a majority of the people of a society live below the poverty line, then the point of view of the disadvantaged group should be the one that will contain the interests of "the larger good ". In the context of todays global problems of unsustainable "development", groups of people who have had the closest relationship with their ecology and environment, are the ones who should be the best placed to offer solutions. Unfortunately those who have lived off the fruits of a system for so long are not going to accept the values of a world view which will damage their self interest.
These conflicting attitudes could lead to a period of non productivity on the one hand, or creative development on the other. More often than not, it is the former, as the dominant group prefers to have a period of anarchy, than to accept any radical change. They can then condemn the leaders of the oppressed as trouble makers, and as the opinion makers come from the dominant group, they most often succeed. This is the second precept, of a society in turmoil, where there is a heightened sense of self interests in all groups.
As society changes, the earlier perception is rejected, and the new one is given credibility even by the group which was dominant.There is a re-ordering of values, which enables the entire society to support and foster a new kind of growth. This kind of growth would have been possible only against great odds for an individual. The success in changing perceptions is only due to collective effort.
What is the role of perceptions in all this? It is a world view that creates surplus, ascribes value, and orders society in a manner which seems logical. There is infact an internal logic, but it is logical only from one point of view. When this logic is imposed on all of society, then evaluations by different standards often expose the fallacies of that logical system. However in the process of change, if there is success in exposing the internal contradictions of that system, then the process of change is less turbulent and more widespread.
The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) was an organisation of poor workers and farmers formed in May 1990. As its name suggests, it was an organisation set up to empower the poor of the area. This empowerment required both economic and socio-political change. In other words a change in the dominant economic and socio-political perceptions prevalent. While all things are related, the thrust of the first two years of the Sangathans activity had been related to adversarial politics and gaining basic recognition for the poor as an entity.Most of the organisational aspects of the work, were concerned with implementation of laws and programmes beneficial to poor workers and farmers. While this involved maximum interaction with Government functionaries, the confrontational nature of the work,pulled the organisation into an open debate with other opinion makers in the area.Those who are more affluent have a ready opinion for the reasons for widespread poverty, and are very quick to state it. The Sangathan had to contend with this view.
There were three popular ways in which the economic situation was seen by the local elite . The first was the fact that there was no work and employment locally. The second was that the value of labour and its productivity were abysmally low. The third was that the solution to all economic ills lay in allowing and encouraging private enterprise and the free market. The first two, were perspectives that the poor also articulated. In the initial phase of organising and forming pressure groups of the poor the Government had seemed the only possible support for an area so economically bankrupt. It seemed as if government intervention like an Employment Guarantee Act was the only possible solution to the large scale unemployment that existed.A Sangathan demand in December 1991 was stated as follows.
"Rajasthan is a state where the majority of the people live below the poverty line. Drought is more common than a year of good rainfall. Many of the families have no source of income other than their labour. In such a situation, guarantee of employment in the labour market is absolutely necessary for survival with minimum self- respect.States like Maharashtra have found it necessary to pass employment guarantee laws. Rajasthan which suffers far more acutely than any other state cannot afford any excuse for not passing the necessary legislation. The law is required to prevent migration (which has adverse effects on other parts of the economy) and to plan for drought management with the people on a long term basis. It will make it possible to make creative use of the enormous labour wealth, skilled and non -skilled available in the state."
However the MKSS was beginning to feel uncomfortable with this position. We had seen how notional even the large scale employment provided during the drought of 1987 had been.It did not seem likely that the Government could provide the kind of employment that would be needed to control migration from this area. The realities of reduced state support after structural adjustments and the New Economic Policy, made such demands even more unrealistic. What is worse , asking for employment from the Government even when it is in the form of a demand, is seen as relief and not as productive economics.As the MKSS began to acquire social and political strength , the false impression of the poor being dependant on the government had to be shed. The time had come to begin to take control over the local economy and see what economic framework could be set up for the benefit of the poor in the area.
The MKSS felt that the potential for local employment certainly existed, but older ways of looking at alternatives prevented a clear picture from emerging. We did not have immediate answers as to exactly what kind of work would be possible locally. We did know, however, that there was enormous wealth in the kinds of skills available. The tragedy was that it was continuously drained and exported to build the infrastructure of others. If such talent and skills could be usefully mobilised for local development, many avenues of employment were bound to open up. The MKSS took a decision to begin with those activities that had immediate openings.Over the last year, the perspective regarding potential for work and employment locally, has changed. There is confirmation that a number of avenues exist. What was needed was to see a future in activities traditionally not within the scope of the poor.
These changes in perception also have the ability to turn economic theories topsy turvy.The theory of demand and supply
states that supply in excess of demand would bring down the value
of that labour or commodity. However, both the quantum and the value of labour is dependent on a perception. For instance, the numbers of Harijan families in Bhim has had no effect on the value of their work. Despite the fact that there are very few Harijan families in Bhim, their economic value is determined by stigma rather than demand and supply. Even after a fairly long agitation for an increase in wages, they could only manage a raise to Rs.300/- per month. Bhim stank for two months, but the work they did was not considered of more value than Rs.8/- per day. Values ascribed to manual labour are even more curious. The most hardworking are manual labourers. On the one hand the government says there is no employment available and therefore says supply of labour far exceeds demand. On the other hand it returns money from employment works because it says labour is not available.
The Government tries to explain this contradiction by creating the perception that "people here are so lazy, they would rather sit idle than work. " The truth is more, that the value given to the kind of labour available is fixed not by supply, but a perception created of excess of supply. Such workers are made to feel of little use to society despite being the primary producers and builders. On the other hand, despite the thousands of genuinely idle "educated unemployed", whenever they do get work it is at an extraordinary high wage value. The value of work is determined by norms set by the more powerful in society by imposing a perception that suits their interests. Laws of supply and demand only come later.
Andreas Fuglesang writes of the myths of the education system and the need to understand that:
"The idea, conceived and maintained by the educationists, that a correlation exists between the stock of educated manpower and the rate of economic growth has not been borne out. It remains another myth. In fact, the evidence now seems to indicate that education, and in particular higher education, has reached a point in many Third World countries where it is making a negative contribution to their development. The products of the educational system, the school leavers, are finding it difficult to secure employment. By and large, the unemployed are the educated and there are considerable differences in the rates of unemployment among labour force groups with different levels of education-with particularly low unemployment rates among the illiterate urban population. The Indian Educational Commission was already concerned with this problem in the early sixties, and stated:... The educated elite thus become largely parasitical in character and the real productive workers are the unlettered peasants and artisans." 1
The MKSS knew that labour was highly under valued. The whole battle on minimum wages had revolved around this question. The rural elite and petty bureaucracy spread the myth of the poor not working.Work is deliberately under-valued so that profits can be maximised. The Sangathan had evolved a position over a period of four years that people work, and work hard. All systems are worked out in a manner in which productivity is reduced so that others can benefit. It is then proclaimed that the poor donot work. The MKSS looked into the details of work norms and implementation collectively to understand the mechanisms by which this whole position was made to appear like the truth. In the last year the MKSS has taken on areas of work where decisions were made collectively , but where management was entrusted to willing members. The output from the workers has been phenomenal.It has been found that when a social cause is part of the work, the motivation levels are very high.
The decision to start grocery stores and familiarise the MKSS with market mechanisms through them has led to the greatest learning. It has led us to believe and realise that there is no
such thing as a FREE MARKET. The market is manipulated.The MKSS found that by exposing the internal contradictions of the so called free market, market manipulations can be used as a tool for the benefit of the poor,and to fight the profit motive . One shop in the Bhim Bazaar has successfully disrupted the strength of all the traders combined. When the shop announced the rates on a mike and spread information to the buyers, the traders were up in arms. They alleged that this was not `fair competition'. Many positions were stated by the local traders -`mazdoors cannot run shops', there is no profit in kirana dukans',` you cannot run a shop with a social objective, it is bound to fail ',`money cannot be handled by anyone, it must be handled only by one malik", ` you cannot survive without our co-operation'. All these have been systematically proved wrong.
One very important reason for success despite entrenched opposition has been the existence of a strong ethical base. Each economic activity has not been seen merely as work, but as part of a struggle to establish another way of life. This has enabled
people to rise in their own self esteem and bring out their very best. Contributing to the general well being of others has brought abundant confidence.It is this aspect more than any other that led the MKSS to believe that there is tremendous potential to form a new set of relationships through work. The New Economic Policy has consistently held that the profit motive and the private sector are the only solutions to the state of the economy.The thrust of the MKSS economic preoccupations have been the opposite.It has consistently held that the motive of general good can mobilise many more people than private gain. It is the beginning. But in the last 12 months local opinion has come to believe that collective control should infact be extended to more economic activities, where traditionally only private gain seemed possible. The MKSS began with an existing actvity and an understood need. Today it is possible to look at and convince local people about starting activities not known in the area and to get approval for them. The effort of this one year should be seen in this context. While perceptions cannot change completely in the period of a year, a process can certainly begin. Before this, for the MKSS perceptions had been changing primarily in a political context, and the economic battles were fought as a clash of values. Forming pressure groups for issues like payment of minimum wages, or redistribution of land was a rejection of anothers logic. This same group of people, now confident of the world view they were advocating, decided to expose the internal contradictions of the framework they were opposing. It was both a strategy and a conscious decision to change perceptions in a continuous process of acquiring greater political strength. It was accepted that the mechanics of a different logical system had to be worked out, revealed, and changed as the process went along. That as a strategy it was necessary because it was no longer possible to ignore the new economic global situation. It was also necessary in order to have a more efficient working system as political power equations changed, and oppressed groups threw off domination. Perceptions inspire change. From that inspiration much can emerge which no one can predict or even expect.
The first part of this report deals with the perceptions different sections of society have about work, labour and its value.The second part deals with changing perceptions. In particular of the members of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan.The third part deals with the results of those changing perceptions.
Society is in a state of continuous change. This is so whether or not deliberate and organised efforts at change are made. In making such an effort, there must be a keen understanding of the forces that control society, their strengths, and their weaknesses. It is also a folly to believe that change can be completely ordered or controlled. However, even seemingly small efforts can have far reaching implications if they are both honest and rooted.This is the belief of the people involved in the work relating to this study. This report is a reflection of that belief.
PART - 1
WORK AND LABOUR, CURRENT PERCEPTIONS
CHAPTER I: THE TRADITIONAL SECTOR
It is perhaps difficult to discuss the nature of caste related work that exists today without looking at its implications in a changing social framework.In the post independence period, the Scheduled Castes have got Constitutional privileges, which however have not got translated effectively into the social or economic plane. What Dr Ambedkar said to the Constituent Assembly over forty years ago is still relevant:
"On the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of graded inequality which means elevation for some and degradation for others. On the economic plane, we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty. On the 26th January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognising the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall by reason of our social and economic structure , continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure
of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously built up." 2
As Bharat Dogra comments,
"Unfortunately Dr.Ambedkhar's advice has not been heeded and serious socio-economic inequalities have continued to exist in India." 3
FEUDALISM
Rajasthan is a strongly feudal state. The Rajputs were the dominant community. All approvals, and disapprovals were derived from cultural and social norms decided by this community. Any attempt at sanskrisation was an attempt not to be Brahimanical but to be Rajput. There are interesting modern interpretations of history and and the origins of castes popularized through booklets. Each caste has its own folk history. One which was popular amongst the Regers (leather workers) had an interesting story. The Regers, it claimed, were originally vanquished Rajputs from southern Punjab. The story goes that when there was a Muslim invasion many centuries ago and the Rajputs lost, some of them were forced to eat beef. After this initial humiliation they were forced to work with the tanning of leather. So, their origin it is claimed is Rajput! This brings back to the caste leaders of the group a sense of their own lineage and importance. They continue however to accept social caste hierarchy and untouchability in rural India.
CASTE BARRIERS
The visible cracks have occurred only through politicisation and modernization. Including greater access to schooling and government jobs, in an attempt to implement the principles of equity and social justice. Andre Beteille writes:
"The principle of equality of opportunity stresses the individual's inborn ability as against the social circumstances of his birth. One can hardly exaggerate the revolutionary significance of the shift of attention from ascribed identity to individual achievement. India has been described as the land of 'the most inviolable organization by birth.' The individual has been from time immemorial stamped with the identity of his caste or subcaste with very little scope to move out of the niche assigned in the social order to his ancestors. Moreover, the disabilities imposed on certain sections of society were unconditional in their binding force." 4
In the case of Shankar a founder member of the MKSS, even acting in public was a problem. He recalls:
"Like all other professions in rural Rajasthan, being a performer, an artist, or even a communicator should in the normal course be determined by caste. Those who are born into the performing castes must perform, and those who aren't, must not. Because of such social sanction I should never have been involved in any of the communication arts.
In many ways my commitment to communication has been as much of a struggle against society as my interest in fighting oppression within it." 5
Castes which are labour related are generally scheduled caste and OBCs. There are skills bought and manipulated by the upper castes. What is important though not perhaps the Central theme of this study, is the primary concern on the nature of acquiescence that existed.A society's understanding of its own powerlessness ,to revolt from rigid, immobile social positions is to be understood before one can even begin to look for alternatives. It is impossible to conceive that birth or genetics control learning inclinations and skills .AS Melville Herskovits explains in his book on Cultural Anthropology :
"the natural logician or administrator born into a caste of fishermen or street sweepers is not likely to achieve the satisfaction in life, and certainly not the success, that would have been his lot had his parents been Brahmins or Kshatriyas;" 6
TRADITIONAL SKILLS
When one looks at traditional skills , one looks at a
hierarchy where manual labour is at the bottom. Below that are only scavenging occupations. Skills linked to occupations which brought severe social ostracism have therefore been periodically and progressively banned by dictate within each caste. The Chamars no longer work with leather, the Balais or Meghwals in a large number do not weave, the Dholis cannot play the bankia. It is an increasingly long list.
The Chamars stopped working with leather in 1956. The community took the decision after arriving at the conclusion that there was a direct link between working with leather and their status as untouchables. The majority of Meghwals also took a decision to leave weaving. They have also been edged out of their traditional occupations because of their inability to compete with powerlooms and mills.
The displaced traditional occupations in most cases relate to the artisan sector. The Meghwals, and the Chamars have started working as masons. Rajasthani labour forms a very large portion of the workers who construct the buildings in Delhi and other Northern Indian states. They go as far South as Maharashtra and upto the borders of Eastern U.P. and Jammu to work.The existing needs of a rural community are no longer met by the village itself. Need based caste occupations have had to either change their skill base or shift into mechanised technology to survive competition from outside forces.
There are examples in Rajasthan of caste groups like the Dholis, the Kalbelias, and the Gadolia Lohars, who still retain a strong link with traditional skills and modes. However modernization has affected a majority of the people.They have had to deal with economic forces which have forced them to change their modes of production and distribution. Credit, borrowing, government programmes, and handouts have also raised, implicit questions which cannot be ignored.
THE RAWATS
Numerically the largest group in the area is the Rawats.
The Rawats have an interesting past. Originally non-agricultural, they were often feared as brigands. They dominated the area between Beawar and Devair and spread out in a region, covering more than 4 districts today. They were paid by the British to settle down to farm. Landholdings are usually very small. This community is now part of the migrant labour who have taken to masonry, carpentry, well digging, and mill labour. They migrate in large numbers every year for additional work. Since their landholdings are small they are at best subsistence farmers, dependent on an erratic monsoon.The community is also the victim of an attempt at Sanskritisation.A process that has
left them more under privileged than before.
RAWATS AND FEUDALISM
The Rawats decided to reconstruct history to prove their lineage. They have names that end with "Singh"; an appendage only found in Rajput names, or in communities which are upper caste with very close links to the erstwhile feudal rulers.
The Rawats claim that they are all descendants of Prithiviraj Chauhan. They trace their ancestry back to him, and locate themselves, historically as having come to this area after his defeat. The sanskritised ones use not only " Singh" but " Chauhan" appended to their names, as additional proof of their lineage. This is very much like a Rajput who would attach his family name - Rathore, Bhati, Sisodia - to claim recognition as a member of a particular royal house.
To compound matters, a retired Army officer and ex MLA, Major Fateh Singh decided in the Fifties to call a big meeting of the Rawats to proclaim themselves Rajputs. They are now called Rawat-Rajput. Interestingly enough the then "Maharaja" of Jodhpur was persuaded to host a dinner where the two communities ate together to seal their brotherhood. Despite this meal, the Rajputs do not accept the Rawats as equals but claim they are only tribals upgraded through a ceremony which was meaningless. The Rawats, who used to have equal social status with the Meenas (a community with ST status) and even inter-marry in some places; are now left with a hollow social status and no proportionate representation in jobs and professions. As a community they are uniformly poor. Large differences in economic status did not and donot exist even now within the community.
A most important and favourable indicator, has been the status of women. Rawat women donot observe the total seclusion peculiar to Rajputs. In Rajasthan the isolation and purdah of Rajput women is generally worse than that of Muslim women. Rawat women dress differently and enjoy liberties of movement and mobility permitted to the OBCs.
Another remarkable trait amongst the Rawats is their non-feudal pattern of behaviour. Not having ever accepted the Rajputs as over lords they do not socially behave as inferiors. Others often use obsequious terms calling the feudal lord "data" or "hukam" . Their idiom of social equality is remarkably refreshing in a society completely dominated by feudal norms of social behaviour where a language of obsequity is indeed the norm of polite social intercourse.
SANSKRITISATION OR MODERNISATION?
Social change is also equated with sanskritation. A calamity which takes the common worker into further bondage, socially and economically. A simple example of the last ten years in Ajmer and Rajsamand Districts are the changes in social spending over marriage and death. Whereas marriage (with bride price) meant a simple wedding and practically no dowry, modernized weddings have gifts as an important item on the agenda. Steel tumblers, katoris etc are gifted to the wedding guests. Brides have to take more things to the in-laws. The death ceremony which ended with a feast and if possible a visit to Pushkar, now extends into taking the ashes to Hardwar. The social approval of such acts puts pressure on many to spend. This kind of change has deeper and more calamitous implications if we see it in the context of fundamentalism and consumerism.
In the present context traditional work relationships especially in SC and some OBCs is seen as both limiting and the cause for social stigma. It is therefore inevitable that modernisation will be acceptable. The question that arises is whether their work will get any acceptance at all in the modern redefined universe . Labour intensive work is now threatened by low social status as well as economically limiting factors such as mechanisation and unemployment. Where does the poor worker stand today in the local market,migratory market, and in big industry?
The traditional sector has shrunk despite sporadic and sparse efforts to keep it going. But in a society where feudal social systems still exist and sometimes dominate, the traditional sector retains its social hierarchy rigidly.
Work or skills in a traditional context become less relevant in an economy where all able bodied men and some women have to migrate every year to supplement their income. Small holdings in a drought prone area limits choices.
THE WORST OF BOTH WORLDS
There is a definite identity crisis. Very often dual roles are played. Exploitative forces, structures and institutions use language and idiom to appropriate the skill or labour. Modernisation is seen as operational only in economic modes and in consumer patterns. Others lie rigidly within caste and therefore traditional and feudal dictate.
Caste skills continue to be learned and used in a kind of limbo. The effects of modernization are both there and not there. There are two sides to this. On the one hand, it has liberated the community from having to learn a "pre-ordained" skill or occupation according to social norms. It has enabled them to move to some extent both physically as well as conceptually away from tradition. On the other hand, the skills have been co-opted into larger operational modes by the upper class/caste group, leaving the poor once again with no choice but to work as laborers in a modern factory or enterprise in which they remain at the bottom of the hierarchy. Harijan or Scheduled Castes no longer being the operational term - but the term being unskilled, labourer or worker. From being in control over production, a creative worker slips into being a cog in a machine.
If this change had brought with it a release from social and caste bondage, it would have its own advantages. But the role remains cast in an isolated mode. The worker from the city factory returns to the village to subject himself to many of the socially oppressive social forces.
CHAPTER II THE PRIVATE SECTOR
The private sector as expected has the least regard for labour, and the value of work. There is very limited economic activity locally and the only investments with assured profits are trading, and in more recent times granite and marble quarrying. Despite not being viable as the sole occupation for most people agriculture remains the most dominant economic activity in the area. The reasons for agriculture not being sufficient even for subsistence is the small size of land holdings ( the average land holding is less than half an acre) and the poverty of rain and irrigation. Most fields are single crop, and wholly dependent on a good monsoon. Even when there is a good crop, it only provides four months food grain for the average family. That is why there is great pressure on most earning members to migrate in search of work, and for farmers to also see themselves as manual labour. The lack of alternative employment opportunities is the primary reason for most of the local youth leaving for urban centres in search of work.
The local self employed fall within two sub categories. The first being agriculture and animal husbandry and the second, services and trades.
THE FARMERS
In a semi-arid region with small landholdings, agriculture can at best be a subsistence occupation. Capitalist modes of agriculture cannot be grafted to an area which has inadequate rainfall and poor quality of soil.
The area around Bhim is characterised by two kinds of agricultural patterns. One is characterized by small land holdings and less than subsistence agriculture. It is a Rawat majority area.The size of land holdings can be as low as a few 'biswas' of land. The added factor of mortgaged land due to economic and social needs, leaves the poor farmer only notionally a farmer. He is in actual fact a labourer.
In Deogarh there are larger land holdings, where the older system of government was feudal. There was a "Rao Raja" in Deogarh, and the relationships both economic and socio-political remain within the older social order. But even in Deogarh , barring a few exceptions , surviving solely on land is not possible.In either case migration or looking for supplementary work is absolutely necessary for survival.
Water runs off the Aravallis to lower lying regions. Even in a year of good rainfall the farmer may not get his maize crop. The maize rots or dries up, if the rains do not come at the right time. Animal husbandry has attendant problems which are a fallout from land. Though landless and small land holders have a few goat or sheep, the fodder for milch cattle is difficult to obtain. Also, the breeding of animals needs investment without immediate or regular monetary income. The small or marginal farmer is therefore dependant once again on migration and other forms of local employment.
Local trades are dependant on monetary flow. Such trades, which are both caste related and somewhat modern, from hair cutting carpentry, vegetable vending, blacksmithy,to setting up small chakkis for atta seem to have reached optimum capacity.
THE TRADERS
The local trading community has made profits from money lending and trading, but invested all the profits in setting up business in cities as far as Bangalore and Madras. They have taken no economic risks locally, fostered no productive enterprise, and shown little concern for local development. What little labour they employ locally - mostly in the form of shop assistants or for building and construction purposes is abused, labelled 'lazy', 'unskilled' and therefore 'justifiably' poorly renumerated.
As a result,the private sector is conspicuous in its absence as an employer. It has used its expertise and information of markets and mechanisms within it to earn money. It has
functioned in the areas around Bhim as a middleman in various garbs.
The local business class which has remained a basically trading community has employed a small percentage of the local unemployed. A large percentage of those employed also have to migrate for the `seth' to Madras, Gauhati, Bangalore or wherever he may have business interests.
Money lending is no longer under the control of the ' Banias' alone.All salaried workers see this as a good investment. The nature of loaning as well as the exorbitant rates of interest charged make it attractive.
CONTRACTORS AND MINING
The Government is shifting from using the department to execute works to contracting privately. These contractors may or may not engage sub-contractors for work. These contractors use all kinds of means to increase their pile, including engaging children to work , paying differential wages based on gender, and overworking the labour. They ofcourse strictly adhere to payoffs to be made to the department under the unwritten but real terms of the contract agreed upon.
Mining is the new local industry. Apart from being ecologically harmful in many cases, mining needs huge capital investments which cannot be made by the worker or even a small group of them . The mining rights now are cornered either as political pay offs from the system or through heavy investment of upper middleclass investors who see easy and ready profit accruing from it.
The real problem is that all this activity has not resulted in the building of an infra-structure which will be of use to the poor. Even the proverbial roads and electric poles, conventional indicators of development are only sometimes visible. Government works have not really improved rain water conservation, soil erosion, or forestry. The landscape of Bhim-Deogarh does not bear any mark of "development" having come its way. The National Highway no 8 which runs through Bhim and Deogarh, and the fancy products that pass through on it are perhaps the only local indications that some kind of development is taking place-albeit elsewhere.
MIGRATION
There is only a drain of cheap labour from the area. There is therefore tremendous pressure on natural resources. Human resources which have been developed have all been trained for migration. Workers migrate to Bijolia(Bhilwara District ), Kathiawar, Ahmedabad, Delhi, and Pali. Children work in dhabas on National Highway No.8, and are "khalasies" (helpers) on trucks. Slightly more `skilled' workers are to be found all over the country.
Since the market for local casual labour is on the decline migration has become a way of life. It is well known that Rajasthan supplies a major part of the unskilled work-force in Northern India, especially for construction work.The search for daily wage work takes the workers to Gujarat (Kathiawar), Delhi and other parts of Rajasthan. If the worker is lucky, he goes and gets work on an individual basis. If he gets work through the contract system, which ensures longer periods of work; the pay off and conditions of work can lead the worker to becoming bonded to contractors for life. A striking example is the workers who migrate to the neighbouring district of Bhilwara, to work in the stone quarries at Bijolia. Most of them return only to die. They assess that their life span is reduced by half, working in unsanitary conditions with little or no health facilities. They are caught in a trap by the contractors who extend credit, which the workers cannot repay. This forces them to work when they are physically incapable of doing so, with no chances of escape. Organised goondas get them back to work at the quarries, if they should think of searching for work elsewhere.
Boys above the age of 10 are sent off to work. Many of them are capable of only looking after themselves and reducing the burden on their parents. If they should bring money home it cannot exceed a maximum of Rs.600/- in a year Children who go away most often land up working in 'dhabas'.
A few work in factories and on trucks. A fair number are victims of accidents ranging from minor injury to permanent disability. The families are often faced with no option. Parents express concern and fear about the child's safety, and negotiate with the owners of 'dhabas' in the initial stages of seeking work.
It is not surprising therefore that the process of development that the poor have seen has left them out of any attempt to deliberate on their own betterment in the area. The local environment offers them hunger and comparative dignity of living . If they migrate they can get marginally better incomes but live a very degraded existence.
ALIENATION
Workers who drift or go to the city for work are still rural
based. The links with land are basic, as land is still linked to all their social life and security. Even where men go to work for long periods in the cities, they try to leave wives and children behind. This is both for economic and health reasons. The link therefore should remain. But the worker who migrates for too long without enough income and continued employment has to ultimately, mortgage the land and finally sell it for subsistence or for fulfilling social obligations.
More than anything else the link with land gives the worker social status and dignity. As an owner of land he sees his creativity intact. The relationship with land is the relationship with nature and with the earth.In losing control over land he loses control over the only piece of capital he can hope to have. However meager or non-productive the land may be it is still a measure of his ablilty to retain the links with his roots.
The alienation of the villager has taken strange and frightening forms. The city in a developing country has its own alienated existence. In the non-caring indifferent environment the villager is completely cut off from every concept of life and living he is familiar with. There is no human relationship that has any value. The concept of time is different.The only exchange value that is understood is that of money. The dwelling place is full of rift. Space, both physical and mental shrinks into a parody of itself. Even though indebtedness exists in the village and the poor have been receiving nothing , the village has a social framework in which he has some rights and an accepted place.
Culturally all the social get togethers , whether of the caste, family or villagers , took care of the need for collective expression. In the city he is catapulted into a social environment where he can only view `entertainment'. He is no longer a creator of his own music or planning the way he might like to spend an evening/night with his peers.
FRAGMENTATION
Closely related to alienation is the fragmentation of the psyche of the factory worker and slum dweller. The man who worked with earth and sowed the seed had a symbiotic relationship with the earth. Growing food has both a real and a symbolic significance. It is an act of procreation, growth and a holistic perception of the universe. In the factory he is fragmented and ends up both metaphorically and actually , screwing the nut like Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times, the classic and universal comment on the state of the modern factory worker.
In Western anthropological terms, a comparison of the worker in pre and post industrialised society would make it necessary to talk of the change in relationship between the worker and his product:
"No discussion of the motivations that underlie the drive to work may omit the satisfactions that come when a craftsman can point to an object and say, with pride, "I made it". Herein lies one of the most difficult problems of an industrialized society, where specialization of labour has been carried so far that this identification with the finished product is not possible. It is only under such circumstances that labour becomes distasteful. We become aware with astonishment that the concept "vacation" is unique to our society, until we reflect how, in other cultures, the rhythm of labor is set by sanctions accepted by all; the ends of labour are the possessions of the one who makes the goods, to dispose of as he desires; and the laborer can identify himself with what he has wrought with his skill and his strength." 7
The factory has also fragmented the understanding of the worker. He now begins to see issues in isolation and even related issues seem to be separate. The most obvious is the example of his being a part of a union in his urban life, but coming back to traditional hierarchical values as soon as he steps into the village, or into the family.
LIVING CONDITIONS
Even the poorest villager has living space. The area outside the built up space is used for tethering animals, cooking , sitting and sleeping.In most cases there are trees to sit under, streams, hills .
The living conditions in the city are appalling.Take any slum. Most often theliving space is extremely small and insufficient. In the greedy environment of the city, the poor have no right to land. There is no space outside the shack. No place to defecate. Public toilets are non-existent. The ones that do exist are the source of stench and infection.Most quarrels in a slum originate from differences over use of space. Sometimes they lead to physical assault and even murder.
In the process of living in slums negative socialization also occurs. All the lumpen elements are fostered because of the harsh and absolutely ruthless conditions that exist in urban slums. It does not need any great understanding of psychology to know that children born and or brought up in these slums are faced with severe handicaps. It is a life without any value base. Life is cheap and all that attracts is the glitter. The only control they know is that of power, brute physical force or money power.
This is not to say that there are no forces of oppression in a village; or that the children born in a Harijan family donot know and face brutality and psychological torture from an early age. Or that the lower castes do not face the oppression of the upper castes. All the evils exist. But in a comparative sense there is the better aspect of tradition that still ensures the protection and growth of some universally essential and positive values.
On the positive side, the prolonged stay in a city slum has enabled the poor to break down caste and religious differences
and understand the common problems that afflict them . Even after the riots in Bombay this year, Rajasthani workers and their families did not seem to have developed hatred for members of other communities. The women said that Hindu and Muslim houses were cheek to jowl, and the burning of one house threatened the other.They were most worried because their sons, brothers, fathers etc were now bonded in Bombay. The employer made full use of the tragedy by giving money, with the condition that none of them could leave without fully repaying the amount loaned.
Alcoholism is a two edged sword used by the establishment and the government to diffuse any possible coming together of the poor. The upper class elite, urban or rural situation talk of the causes of poverty, they inevitably conclude that alcoholism is a primary cause. The fact that many of those who profess concern make their income from the spin offs from liquor sales does not seem to be of any relevance. While their income comes directly from the consumption of liquor, it makes a good cover to say that the poor are responsible for their own condition. Aa sizeable part of the State Governments income comes from the sale of liquor. They encourage the opening of shops and turn a blind eye more often than not to `irregularities'. Liquor has become another tool of oppression. The rich are very worried about "smack" and "grass" taking over their children in colleges and schools and would be horrified if someone were to suggest that sales be legally sanctioned. Liquor in a village context has been responsible in the last 50 years for developing addictive habits, death, ill health and endemic starvation; with the full blessings of the State.
The urban slum dweller is at the bottom of the class hierarchy in a city. Deprived of all forms of dignity of living and socialization, he is often seen as the unlawful impingement on the city, violating aesthetic concepts of cleanliness and beauty,creating a population problem etc.There was immediate identification with the plight of slum dwellers in Bombay when we organised a show of Anand Patwardhans film ' Hamara Sheher'in Bhim. In the film , there is an explicit statement that these offensive specimens of humanity should have continued to stay in the village. As one of the viewers who migrates to Ahmedabad said, "But who provides the city's services?"
HEALTH
The migrated worker's biggest problem is keeping good health. If he is not a full time worker with health benefits from the factory or mill he works with, he is entirely dependant on government health facilities or private clinics. He cannot afford either.
Every day that he is ill, means a loss of wages. Long term illnesses mean unemployment. The worker simply cannot afford it.
In the last five years that we have lived amidst villagers in Devdungri, we have seen the death of many men in the age group 35 to 50. Most of them come home, literally to die.Diseases are contracted because of work conditions. But employers use all legal loop holes to get out of the responsibility of looking after the workers who are on temporary work. Even accidents which occur at work are not compensated at all, or inadequately compensated. The law is always used to support the employer.
Being unwell, or curfews due to communal riots mean a period of no work and high expenses. The only reason the rural worker suffers through the nightmare of a slum existence is to work.
To be stuck in a city at a time when going to work is not possible is the final alienation.
The worker has a short span when he can sell his labour at what seems to be a good wage.The time of his greatest productivity, the peak of his physical potential. He may even earn a fair amount in this period. But the money so earned does not go into the creation of assets. On the other hand it gets diverted into consumption on what are non productive things-traditional or modern. At the time of his failing powers , he is left where he began economically. Coupled with failing health and the prospect of no employment. In case of accidents or sudden health problems, he is left with the bleakest of expectations.
MECHANISATION
What are the new relationships which evolve in this period of migratory labour? Working in a factory the worker faces the machine, learns to use a part of it. Finally he fears the growing sophistication in technology -seeing his redundancy and hunger that will inevitably follow.
This country has been influenced by Gandhiji. He was perhaps one of the strongest advocates of non-mechanisation in this century. His entire economic framework was built around the concept of existing skills in the village. As Gandhiji wrote in the Collected works in 1924
" No machinery in the world can compete with these villagers who need no other machine than their own willing hands and feet, and a few simple wooden instruments which they can devise themselves." 8
But Independent India's aspirations and dreams as spelt out by the 5 year plans saw self sufficiency and the building of industrial infra-structure as crucial. The question as L.C. Jain says is what kind of industrial development:
"While it talks of 'industrial development' it ignores the concept of 'industrialisation'. If it did not, it would have build upon the skills and materials that are available and then moved from a given stage of development to the next one by higher added value, better skills etc. It has never even recognised that the artisan activity is an industrial one. Therefore, anyone who calls himself an Indian economist, planner or administrator who ignores our inherent strength and endowment is deceiving himself." 9
The production base so established has therefore been strongly in favour of mechanization; often synonymous with modernization. Fuglesang explains how these terms have become part of a vocabulary which has created popular `myths'.
"Another myth in our language is projected through the word development. Intertwined with the myth of 'technology', it has many of the same connotations. In addition, its general use implies a value judgement, i.e. that good, desirable social development is synonymous with economic growth, a linear process of social change ending in the model of the modern western consumer society. The myth is that this is the only thinkable and possible direction of social development."10
All forms of industry and even mechanized ones have needed a labour force to operate them. Cheap and willing labour has come from rural India. As is well known the causes for migration have been rural poverty, failure of agriculture to satisfy basic economic needs and lack of employment. However, where are these new symbols of modernisation taking us? L.C. Jain again:
"High technology, modernisation and international competitiveness are today's buzz words. In textiles, the stress is one what is the most 'modern' way of making cloth, not on the health of the population, their stomachs and livelihood. Who is to wear this cloth, where is the purchasing power to come from, these are not question of paramount important. We have gone in for a massive investment in synthetics for which the government has procured foreign exchanged, imported raw materials and technology processes without bothering to assess whether it is suited to our agro-climatic conditions."11
The initial needed for large numbers of workers in the mills created the impression of plentiful employment in the city. The migratory population of workers has has had to deal with many problems, not the least being the drying up of employment possibilities. The non-labour oriented modern machines which have taken over some and will soon take over an increasingly large chunk of all production threatens to substitute humans with robots and rid itself of all labour related problems of production. Growth has been the priority, not employment and growth. L.C.Jain:
"It so happened that in the last ten years our economic growth, according to the modern concept of GDP, has been rising from 3.5% to 5.3%. But during these years, while the GDP has risen, the employment growth rate has fallen from 2.8% to 1.3% and the labour force is increasing at the rate of 2.6%. So you can see at once that this is a distortion in the economy," 12
LAYOFFS
In the last year and a half, a number of migrant workers have returned home due to closure of small factories and lay off of labour because of mechanisation.Over decades these layoffs have come in waves. At first it was layoffs from Public sector mines.Then there was the decade of layoffs from 'permanent ' mill jobs.The difference today is that the worker is losing what was in any case a very poorly paid job in the unorganised sector.Earlier, being thrown out of a job in one of these factories meant finding a job doing the same thing in another factory.Today that kind of job is being lost to a machine. For instance, in Kabeda where we live, a number of the women who used to migrate the Ahmedabad used to work in rice factories. Their job was to dry the rice after it was boiled. Today, they have no work because imported machines have rendered them useless.They will still end up finding some form of work because they have to in order to survive. But their displacement from this industry means a fall in income because they no longer have the advantage of being experienced and skilled.
CHAPTER III THE GOVERNMENT SECTOR
Rajasthan is a semi-arid State with drought occurring as
frequently as monsoons fail. Water is a scarce commodity and therefore agriculture is mainly subsistence farming of coarse grains.The Government organises what it calls `relief work'to provide wages. There is a Famine Code , under which there is provision for opening works during drought. The word `Famine' is often used as the description of drought conditions and work provided.
"FAMINE" "RELIEF" & EMPLOYMENT
Different definitions:
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a famine as follows: "1. extreme scarcity of food in a stretch 2. A dearth of something specified (water famine) 3. Famine Prices, Prices raised by scarcity, hunger, starvation (die of famine) Derived from the latin fames hunger.
In a drought-prone area employment is a critical factor. The word has, therefore, become synonymous with employment more than anything else. Scarcity of food and water are not absolute in and of themselves, but have a relationship with access to power and resources.
The word `famine' has become a part of common usage in Rajasthan. The word is also a part of hureaucratic jargon and is used to describe a situation which does not strictly conform with its usage in the dictionary. Famine is also a word used by all wage workers who know little Hindi and no English. What are the various ways in which it is used?
For the wage worker the word connotes a government work which gives employment during a period of drought. ' Famine' then is a word used strictly to describe a form of employment. It has tangential references to the climatic conditions that give rise to the question " Famine Kab Khulegi?"
For the Government the word has reference to the Relief Code: which deals with the declaration of famine and with works to be opened during that period. The Famine Relief Code goes into detail about the way a Famine is declared. The method used relates to the harvesting and production of food-grain and its assessment (Girdhawari) by the Patwari. The Patwari's records then become the basis for the declaration of 'Famine'. As in almost all government records the Patwari's report assumes great significance.
EFFECT OF CONFUSING TERMINOLOGY
Broadly speaking such inaccurate use of the terms "famine" & "relief" has caused great confusion between expectation demand and policy. Different perceptions of the same policy contain the seeds of confrontation. Inaccurate use of terminology widens the gap.
The word "drought" a far better definition of the situation often experienced in Rajasthan is rarely used by Government. What is and should be a productive employment programme is termed "relief"
The most destructive aspect of the Governments perspective on work and labour is that it is projected as a handout; a dole; something that the government provides largely as a favour or welfare programme. Despite the statistically insignificant number of man days it creates, the impression created by this "welfare" attitude serves to destroy the value of a work force more hardworking and genuinely creative than any other in our country. This attitude is borrowed from and reinforces the myths built up in the labour market, where creating a surplus is the best way of ensuring low wages and uninterrupted supply. There is a very important and of attitudes in creating such a surplus. The methods used are by creating a hierarchy of categories by dividing the workforce into a few managers and many "managed" a few skilled and many unskilled, a few permanent and many temporary, a few employed and many unemployed.
All workers who dig and carry mud , work with stone , work as construction workers fall under this category.
This category has the largest number of workers in any given situation. There is a quarrel with this definition itself. Unskilled this work is not. It might of course be the one that has the lowest market value. In any poor country labour of this sort is available plentifully at cheap wages, because of created market conditions. Dr.B.D.Sharma as Commissioner Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes comments in his report:
"It is an irony that the agricultural labourer in our agricultural country whose work is the most skilled, the most arduous, whose working conditions are the most difficult has been graded as an unskilled worker. This is also the case with other workers in the unorganised sector. Their skills are deemed to be `non-skills' and their knowledge as `ignorance'. And all the skilled workers in the traditional sector are gradually becoming a motley crowd of unskilled people , a process which was set in motion as a part of imperial design during the British period. In the case of most of these workers, deprivation has reached the ignominious level of `biological exploitation', which is not even alluded to."13
WHO WORKS?
The work done by this category of worker is also the one that is absolutely essential for the building of any kind of physical assets. If work done by these people is unskilled, then why is so much time,energy and money used for R&D to make machines to substitute them ? If machines are designed to replace them, the skills must merit more than being defined as unskilled, surely ?
In Rajasthan, the Government has since the time of erstwhile Rulers both British and Indian, projected itself as a provider of employment. The Jodhpur Royal family still says that the Umaid Bhawan Palace which houses them and a five star hotel today saved the surrounding populations from starvation because it was built during a severe drought when employment was not available. The British had evolved a Famine Relief Code, which remains in use largely unchanged even today. The Government believed that it was saving the population by providing employment during drought and famines. This is however, only half the story. The entire development infrastructure of the state roads, canals, tanks, schools, hospitals, and Government buildings have been built because of famine and other such employment programmes. It is on this infrastructure that mining agriculture and industry has made the progress that the Government so unfailingly talks about. Drought is a time when exceedingly cheap labour is available and used.
WORK AND WAGES
A popular assertion vis a vis these programmes is that the Government provides a vast amount of employment and that people do not work.
We stated this issue in the following manner in a seminar on "Minimum Wages on Government works" at the Institute of Development Studies in Jaipur in January 1991. "Most large scale employment provided by the Government in Rajasthan comes from Famine Relief Works, and of late the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana. In both these works, despite several court decisions, the minimum wage is rarely paid. In fact, both programmes are meant to build up the grass-root level infrastructure. However, a lack of serious involvement by the people and the government not only means consistent payment of less than the minimum wage, but also a frittering away of the State's development funds.
Perhaps one major problem is that the government wants to provide relief to a large number of drought-affected people, but it links the providing of such relief to productive employment. The Government has a basic desire to stretch its limited available funds to reach as many people as possible. And that is where the government's interest clashes with the concept of minimum wages. If the government were to merely provide 'relief', during a famine for instance, by substantially subsidising food grains, its idea of making its money reach more people, would be valid. However, because it chooses to link this disbursement of funds to productive activity, it is no longer 'relief' and the people will demand their rights as they would under any employment programme. The norms set by the Government create conditions that make it difficult, if not close to impossible, for people all over Rajasthan to earn the minimum wage. What are these norms?
Government norms
1. The Government requires the worker to be present from 8 a.m to 5 p.m. If he/she is found absent from the site at any time during these hours, the entire day's wages are deducted.
2. Although this is clearly time norm, where the supervisory responsibility should be with the department, the government refuses to take responsibility for getting work gone, and gives the worker no entitlement for doing 8 hours duty.
3. The government makes payments on a 'task basis', i.e. as per amount of work done.
4. The worker is not given the freedom to complete the task in a manner most suitable. If he finishes his task early he cannot leave the site.
5. There are no provisions to pay more than the minimum wage if the task completed is worth more. In other words, the minimum wages is really a maximum wage.
6. While work is given out individually it is measured collectively, and the same payments are made to all those who work on a site (ranging from 80 to 500 people). Those who work, and those who don't get the same wage, and therefore, to the worker the task completed by him or her is not related to the wage. Obviously, there is a disincentive to work.
THE ARGUMENT OF THE WORKERS
The way things are:
Today the work conditions workers face in famine relief and other government works are unique in their incentive to produce lethargy. What the worker knows, is that he/she must reach the work site by 8 a.m. If they are late their days' wages will be deducted. Apart from this, there is little or no supervisory discipline. There is no knowledge of what wage one is likely to get, and everyone knows that all workers will get paid the same. Each worker is expected to exert some moral pressure on all the other workers to complete the task. That is an impossible task, so it is better to sit in the shade and take whatever payments come their way. The result is, no work, low wages and the providing of an incentive to the worker to be dishonest. Who really benefits?
THE WAY THE WAGE-WORKER UNDERSTANDS WORK
There are basically two ways in which workers are used to being employed. One way is if the employer tells the worker he wants him to come for a full day's work and has a supervisor who tells him what work he would like him to do, during would like him to do, during the course of that time. It is made clear to him what wage will be given before the day ends and if the employer is not satisfied with the work done he doesn't employ him the next day. The wage is not negotiable.
The other way employment is provided is on a 'contract basis', 'task basis' or 'piece-rate basis'. They all mean the same to the worker. A certain task is given to be completed for which a certain sum of money is paid. In this case, the modalities of how the work is to be done are left to the worker. When how quickly, in which way it is done just does not concern the employer. He wants the work done, for which the promised amount will be paid. Each person is paid according to the amount of work done, the workers' wage is not affected by the productivity of another worker. Here also, the workers know where they stand before they begin work, and earning the wage they have contracted for depends only on themselves.
The Demands
1. The Government should create conditions under which the Minimum Wage is paid to all workers.
2. Workers should only be employed on a time-rate or a task basis. Both norms used together are unacceptable.
3. If the 'task basis' norm is used then payments must be made on the basis of individual measurements."
PIECE RATE AND TASK BASIS
Further explanation of the difference between piece rate and task rate is explained: Piece rate converted to task basis - the fundamental difference:
The GOI Manual on JRY allows work on a "time rate" or "piece " "rate" basis. The Government of Rajasthan has converted piece rate to "task basis". The two are entirely different concepts. Where piece rate is by piece where numbers can be counted and wages determined, task basis allots a chunk of work to one or many people , where counting may or may not be possible. Some of the problems in implementation of task basis are listed below:- In task basis:-
a) Individual measurement is given and collective measurement taken.
b) No time can be fixed for the worker to be present, where as attendance, in practice is taken twice daily.
c) Work for each worker should be independent if there should be a chance to get the minimum wage.
d) There should be the possibility of earning more than the minimum wage wherever measurements are the norm. However the minimum wage in treated as the maximum wage. The tasks should be clear cut and easily understood.
e) No pucca works can come under task or piece rate as the work is done collectively by a group of people with different tasks and skills. The "Mistri", in short determines the pace of work and the penalty cannot fall on the labourers.
Problems with policy:
a) There are no penalty provisions for lack of supervision and the shortfall becomes a penalty on the labour.
b) Shortage of staff is made into an excuse for shortfall, this again cannot be sufficient reason to levy penalties on the labour.
c) There is no redressal system for filing complaints for non payment of Minimum Wages under JRY, within its structure.
THE `LAZY' WORKER OR `WILY' GOVERNMENT?
But what is the real position of the Rajasthan Government? It is worth examining their "defacto" non-public position so that there is a genuine debate. The State Government publicly takes and holds the position that it pays and is committed to paying Minimum Wages in Rajasthan. Its mode of payment is on a task basis where payments are made theoretically on the task performed. In fact measurements are rarely made, and the "task basis" is used as tool to make payments that are convenient.
The actual position of the State Government comes out only in private conversations and in their actions. Initially the Rajasthan Government publicly refused to pay Minimum Wages on famine relief works when it had in force the Exemption from payment of Minimum Wage on Famine Relief Works. This was held to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Sanjit Roy us. State of Rajasthan in 1983. Since less than the Minimum Wages could not be paid publicly, the exemption was replaced by a notification. This tied the quantum of work to the amount of wage, with the MAXIMUM earning possible being the Minimum Wage. Any decrease in the quantum of work turned out wa s to result in a proportionate decrease in wages.
Payment infact continued as before, with the B.S.R. and the notification being thrown at anyone who dared to raise the question of Sub Minimum Wage payments. A series of High Court and Supreme Court judgements continued to require that the State Government pay Minimum Wages. This the Government would pay to the workers who had gone to court, and continue with the same lower wage payments for the rest.
Because the State Government has been told that it must pay Minimum Wages, it has brought in the creation of assets as a notional priority.
As the Rajasthan Government feels it does not have the funds for supervision, and the labour in Rajasthan is exceedingly lazy, the only way it can ensure not gifting away funds is by paying on a task basis. The fact of the matter is that if wages are not a priority, neither are assets. The manner of selection, the level of supervision, and condition of the assets themselves today, are very clear indications of how important the assets themselves are. The task basis is also formulated and enforced in such an impractical manner that it is quite clearly only an excuse for payment of a sub Minimum Wage. Not as the State Government would have us believe, as a means of getting more work done.
ASSET CREATION
Since the manifested position of the Government is not seen as a genuine attempt to create assets the people do not identify with the work being done. A dismal and diluted sense of purpose is apparent in which the entire issue revolves around quarrels over the method and quantum of the share of spoils. The worker in this scenario sees work as totally irrelevant in the creation of any infrastructure which may infact be of great benefit to him and the village at large. Infact the notion that Government works are for creation of assets remains more or less on paper.
QUANTUM OF EMPLOYMENT
As far as quantum of employment is concerned an example from the drought of 1987 is revealing. The Government said it was willing to provide employment to one person from a family of 5,2 people from 7 between the months of November and June. In fact, employment was only given to one person from each family for 15 days out of every 45. A "rotation system" was used by employing a worker for 15 days, and then replacing them on the muster rolls by some one else, so that by rotation all workers were eventually covered. It worked out to 30 days of enforced leave after 15 days of work. Out of the 15 days 2 Sundays were enforced unpaid holidays. An interesting use of labour protection laws.Thus, an average person ended up getting approximately 60 days employment in the whole year at an average wage rate of Rs.7/ per day (although the prevailing minimum wage was Rs.11/ per day) Therefore in monetary terms the average family was paid between Rs.400/ to 450/ in wages for work done that year. As we found, the selling of one goat, or the mortgaging of land or pawning of ornaments fetched much more than what the wage provided. The importance of employment was more psychological than actual. Moreover, the structure of famine relief works has ensured that the self image of workers on government works is irreparably damaged.
AND UNEMPLOYMENT
For both the Government and the local elite, the key is to have a large unemployed workforce. One that has a low self image. It is only then that dependencies on even the crumbs the Government throws out can be ensured. The media, the education system, the language of the programmes all create sets of myths that are designed to do two things. On the one hand to create a feeling of helplessness, dependency, and a degree of desperation. On the other, a ray of hope however false it may be. Two broad examples in the employment field will help illustrate this.
In this marginal landholding Aravalli belt parents are sending larger numbers of their boys to school and even college. The primary, and in many cases the only motive is a secure Government job. The education system inculcates in the child a complete disregard, distaste and disvalue for the background he comes from his dreams are to become a Government servant of any kind, Chaprasi, Jawan or constable. Despite the overwhelming evidence that only a fraction of the graduates will get any Government jobs the entire education system fosters the impression that hard work, preservence, a bribe, and a little bit of luck will take them to the end of the rainbow. There is no sense of confidence that is built up by the years of schooling that the graduate can now face an environment, however hostile. Huge numbers of educated youth pursue years of desperately filling forms in the distant hope of getting a job. These few years spent on a thread of hope are enough to deflate and control the years of youthful spirit. What remains is dissipated by schemes for "educated unemployed" and by the time the young man goes through this process he has been rendered useless even in his own eyes. Ridiculed by his family, betrayed by a system he spent years in, and burdened with a set of norms which has only alienated him from his background, he is rendered impotent to help it change or grow.
A similar game is played with the labouring workforce also. An impression is created that there is no work available. That work done was not really necessary. That any employment or work provided is a favour. And that the entire workforce is dependent on the employers `benevolence' for providing employment at all. These benevolent employers are the factory owners, the petty businessmen the mine owners, the liquor contractors, the labour contractors, the land owners, the government, and its functionaries both elected and appointed. All these employers forcefully impose the view that they are, at great cost to themselves providing employment for the wretched and the lazy labouring classes. Therefore any organised opposition is both or crime and a sacrilege.
Apart from the work provided during drought, there are employment programmes run by the Government as part of its usual development programmes. The JRY being the principal work programme along with work provided By the PWDs, Central and State, irrigation, and forest departments.
In all these programmes of work the Government sets down certain norms and goals for the programme. Collectively comparing goals with the realities at a grass root level is an excersize in education and empowerment.
CHAPTER IV: SELF PERCEPTION
What then is the self perception of the rural worker? It is impossible that the perceptions of all the categories of more powerful groups would not influence the workers self perception. In the absence of being organised, the self perception is likely to mirror the views of the more powerful, even when it results in a self deprecatory view. How then would one define it?
"I go in darkness
I return in darkness
My whole life is full of darkness
There is no ray of light" 14
(Song of darkness of hali (bonded labourer) in Gujarat)
THE KARMIC LAW
The Karmic Law tries to convince the people that they are, where they are, because of their own past deeds/misdeeds.The image of the poor worker is an off shoot of this major tradition.The worker continues to think that he /she is is a mere handler of mud. Even where the self -perception may be more self confident because of being upper caste , the initial response is always self deprecatory. The stated position moves between a genuine feeling of being of no value, to use of the phrase more as a part of ` polite' feudal vocabulary. Time and again the question " Aap kya karthen hai ?" , is answered with" Mai gar nakun bai" ( I lift and throw mud ) The Hindu caste hierarchy and the karmic beliefs have conditioned the lower castes to accept their position of inferiority for centuries. The shift from acquiescence to self assertion is the change that all of us are looking for.
This self perception has perpetuated the system where the worker has accepted low wages and performed menial jobs, without asking questions at all. In todays `modern' universe where rights are being spelt out the worker is perhaps moving towards a more aggressive stand, to demand that there should be more value placed on the work done. This shift is slow. The modern system has brought in a value based on the market, where once again they fall into the lowest category in the wage structure.
This has been internalised to such an extent by the workers themselves, that Jathi Panchayat after Jathi Panchayat has taken decisions to stop working with the traditional skill,i.e. Chamars with leather, Meghwals with weaving etc. This ofcourse only relates to work done by the scheduled castes. This has reached ludicrous levels when scheduled caste performer groups have taken decisions not to play instruments which fetched them a good income for specific periods in the year. Examples are the Dholis, who have stopped playing the bankia(rural shenai), the Dhol (drums . etc. ) The Rawats stopped playing the `chang',a mellow tambourine, because they wanted to upgrade themselves into Rajputs.
THE UNSKILLED WORKERS
Anyone who has tried to work with digging of earth or breaking stone should argue for it being defined as skilled work. But the worker from a poor home continues to accept the Brahminical classification , where all things which relate to the mind has more value . Work done by the hands and feet are of lesser importance in this hierarchy.
The petty Government servant, senior bureaucracy and the rural rich align themselves together to say that the worker is lazy and doesnot perform unless pressurised. The demands from the worker in terms of output defined, in sheer physical terms, are such that only the very sturdy amongst them can fulfill them. The old and infirm , the younger ones too work against all odds to fulfill tasks so as to get the wage.If this myth is true than how is it that the same lazy workers continue to build massive buildings and, roads ? If they collapse, it is not because of bad craftsmanship or workmanship , but because of pilferage of money and materials by those who manage the construction.
WHOSE LOGIC?
There is also the problem of having to define things within a different logical framework. Bhuri ya - a very outstanding example of a brave and self respecting woman is a leader from amongst the oppressed. However, she follows in many things an entirely different logical paradigm. One that even someone sympathetic to her cause may not be able to understand. For her, the problem is not only to be able to express her suffering, and demand a change in perception, but also to be able to explain it in terms that are understood. Andreas Fuglesang writes:
" Peoples thought processes are not different, but the classification systems they use to describe reality may be different." 15
Bhuri ya has no definition of creativity. She will look at us with indulgent tolerance if we started discussing the creative aspect of her life. For her, the creativity involved in her work with farming her crop, rearing children and dealing with social and economic injustice, is part of the rhythm of life.
She passes with ease from concern over corruption in the panchayat, of which she is a member, to the incontinence of her grandchild as if they are part of the same argument. The importance of her involvement in all plans for creative change are our perception of her and her role in our plans. Like most rural women, she is shrewd to perceive and evaluate the intent of the person addressing her and the real benefit she or the community will get from such involvement.
Their perception of themselves and the perception from outside of people like her create the first real dichotomy and the real schism that our minds have to grasp and bridge. There is first the mental perception. There is an intellectual and elitist perception of the predicament and capabilities of rural women, of whom Bhuri ya is one.
Then there is the cultural difference that produces a series of reactions that are part of our subterranean selves. She is dirty. She smells of goat or cow. Her gestures of physical intimacy may not be welcome. Then her language is difficult.
Her idiom is not ours. Where as we have had tutelage under Aristotelian methods and have consciously accepted the deductive method in all normal intercourse; she has a different logic. Her logic is inter linked with and part of her stories and the collective memory of her social group.
We experience impatience and boredom. We donot have the mental concept of time that she has. Though we may share the larger inheritance of India, we see time as linear, she as cyclical. The hurry and bustle of our minds and our conscience is to catch up with it. Hers, an inevitability of the cycle of life. Apparent not only in life and death, but in the daily chores of living and in facing the upheavals in life.
THE HIERARCHY OF WAGES
Wages are determined by processes which are evaluative. Fixing forms of work in a hierarchy. This hierarchy is determined by demand and supply. A skill therefore gets separated from the person and alienates the worker from relating to it as a part of an ability to express himself. The low self image leads to a number of things. The worker loses respect for the work and output. Work is therefore affected both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Degradation of skills, mechanisation and reducing value gets reflected in shoddy work. In a brahminical and feudal society, physical labour of all kinds get the lowest position in the hierarchy. There is neither moral nor economic justification in the norms of society for the common labourer to see oneself as a key input in the business of building and developing the country. They react with disinterest and apathy.
Therefore when Government starts employment programmes and sees the worker not as a fellow compatriot but as a protagonist in the division of spoils, the work ethos gets further undermined and degraded, resulting in complete wastage of Government funds.
Forcing complicity in a system of corruption even though the
primary beneficiary is the ruling class, causes an even greater loss of self respect.
It is this low self image that prevents change and prevents economic initiatives from being born from amongst these groups. Even if there were exceptions amongst the poor who had the capacity to withstand such attitudes from being internalised, they simply do not posses the economic strength either to establish themselves. The only solution lies in collective strength and working out systems of collective functioning in economic activities. But there is no time or space for such thought to get formulated. Understanding of collective economic power comes more easily in situations of confrontation. Forming of collective interest groups to take an adversarial position is naturally the first step. Management vs labour Government vs people, upper caste vs lower caste, Landlords vs tenants and buyer vs seller are the categories which get formed to begin with. Wages, corruption, land issues, and untouchability the kinds of issues which are highlighted.
THE LOW SELF IMAGE
It is only after collectives of oppressed groups have discovered their strength through a period of struggle that they begin to see their own potential to fight the establishment. The shift in perception begins to take place, but old categories aren't shaken off easily. Management skills continue to be seen as skills which lie with the others. There is a clearer knowledge of the mechanism of exploitation, but the only way of fighting it is to organise against it. That is the feeling the poor begin to have. The confidence to be able to provide a working alternative model only comes much later. It is this change in perception that is a necessary pre-requisite for rural workers to be able to assert their rights to creative development.
MY INITIAL PERCEPTION
I passed the I.A.S. exam in 1968 at the age of 21.My reasons for opting for the I.A.S. were fairly ordinary. As a woman, I wanted to work and not get married and pass into the limbo of passivity.
I was trained in Tamil Nadu, though I belonged to the Union Territories Cadre. Since I was Tamil speaking the Government decided to send me there. My training was in Tiruchi and North Arcot Districts. The DMK had just come to power.In those years as an IAS trainee I had my first exposure to rural India. My Collector in North Arcot , T.V. Venketaraman took his job seriously and spent 15 days every month out of the District Head Quarters. We, the probationers, accompanied him. In village after village we were met by the village Sarpanch and drank innumerable glasses of Horlicks; the drink given to `officers'. We attracted a crowd wherever we went. I was convinced that we were meeting the poor and that their voices were being heard.
During the training I discovered how little I actually knew about rural realities. The real fears of responsibility for action and redressal began to weigh heavily on me. This drew me into the role of arbitrator and judge; but ill equipped to guarantee justice. The information levels grew. Along with it the knowledge that the first two years as SDM would be important years. I also knew that the Tehsildar and the BDO, middle aged , experienced officials, could mislead me. But did I really have the time to understand them and their motives ?
I also saw how the local administration did not really function. It just ambled along. In Delhi, in 1973-74, the P.M.O. was a fearful and awesome presence. Sanjay Gandhi was alive and just beginning to assert himself. I saw senior officers currying favour to stay on the `right ' side of the Government and the politicians in power. I also saw subordinate service officers neglecting their work to be available to officers who occupied key posts in the GOI. They spent the bulk of their time liaising and functioning as upgraded domestic servants. This did not seem to affect them, as long as they got flats in the right locality and their children got admitted to the `best' schools.
One enters the IAS with the feeling that the Government will provide the framework for working effectively for social justice, within a strictly legal framework. The institutional framework though already corrupt, offered at least a structure within which it was possible to try and make the system function better. There was scope to fight the system of patronage that exists within the Government; or at least to make it deliver with some justice. There also seemed to be some measure of manipulation possible within the legal,institutional framework to influence the political roles; both at levels of policy and implementation.
It seems as if the IAS is the chosen elite that is going to set the country on its feet, show up the corruption and the nepotism. The District training, quickly and effectively rips the illusion apart. The knots are large and completely baffling. An unfamiliarity with the law makes it impossible to act without local guidance and the local officials, know it. It takes the better part of a posting to sit on the problem. It is not only the officialdom. The local power group has also learnt to influence and manipulate the office . It is seldom that the really poor or oppressed have access to the officer. They are victims of the system and tradition, where contact with officers has always been through brokers. To get the way cleared takes a while.
It is also difficult to understand the intricacies of local politics. Which political leader pleads for whom and why ? What are the relationships that exist between the powerful and the dependant voters? What is the nature of the Specific divide between groups?
These are questions that need time and humility to understand. If the first is in short supply because of the nature of the posting, the latter is sure to be eradicated in the year in the Academy. `You are members of an elite service.' `You are the ones who will direct policy, give direction to the political masters, a la "Yes Minister' no doubt; " You are the brains of the country and such like render learning difficult. Even if there humility, lack of familiarity often leads the junior, well meaning IAS officer to trust the wrong person, misunderstand because of genuine mis-information. But the impossible position of accepting ones mistake! The IAS officer can do no wrong in front of the public.
The civil service like the educational system is still controlled by a decadent colonial spirit. The deep suspicion of the public, the need to separate the officer from the community, the notion of privacy ( including palatial residential accommodation ) are all colonial concepts. Concepts which have bred and continue to breed speratism and alienation as a matter ofprinciple and pride. The repeated fear of every sub-divisional officer is of the `mob'. A description of a group of people who may go to meet the officer if more than 30 in number. There is a fear of facing the people alone. The police have to stand around very often to give the officer any self confidence. This is as true if women go in large numbers to meet them, unarmed and harmless.` Please send a delegation in,' is the oft repeated request or order. It would be very surprising to the members of the `mob' , if they knew that post lunch conversations in the Delhi Administration were very often detailed and repeated anecdotes of how these officers ordered firings and controlled `mobs'. The IAS' spirit of valour comes out with these anecdotes where the vanquished are their own people asking for their rights, protesting against injustice. I used to be filled with great unease and disquiet. How could such an accepted position foster social justice and change?
Even for a good bureaucrat the limitations are very often crippling.The duration of the posting determines the nature of the work. But inevitably the work done is reversed by the person who follows, if she has a different value base. There is no change guaranteed unless there is a strong political will that backs and supports the policy and ensures continuity even with a change of officer.
But the feudal trappings remain unchanged, including the numbers of hangers on who continue to applaud every utterance and work done , like the courtiers of old.There is no system of genuine feed back and review - systemic or otherwise . Any real attempt at change would mean a direct confrontation with politicians and senior civil servants. It would most definitely mean a transfer. Those officers at the sub-divisional level who have attempted genuine land reform, have had to face tremendous odds. There are innumerable examples. The IAS only allows the odds of innovation in the softer areas of development-literacy, family planning, women's education, health and social welfare. In other areas any attempt even to implement the law is viewed negatively and the consequences are writ large on the wall for every one to see. This has led in most cases to working within the narrow framework of conventionaally accepted positions. I did not see the point of continuing to work in a system where I had notional power and trappings. I could not really even begin to talk about fairness in inter-relationships amongst the elite, leave alone genuine change. I bid good-bye to the IAS, with no regrets. It is true that the three magic letters give you entry into a world barred to the normal citizen of this country, at least where Government is concerned. The confirmation of the privelages the service offers, is clear from the fact that the magic still works 18 years after resigning from the I.A.S.!
PART -II
CHANGING PERCEPTIONS
CHAPTER V A PROCESS OF EMPOWERMENT
"Ude che bhai udeche
Sangathan wali bath gaon gaon udeche
Udeche bhai udeche
Mazdoori wali bath gaon gaon udeche
Udeche bhai udeche
Dukan wali bath gaon gaon udeche
Udeche bhai udeche."
From one of the songs of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan.
THE SANGATHAN
Before beginning a collective excersize of a search for alternatives there has to be a collective rejection of the negative attitudes imposed by the rest of society on the oppressed group. A public exposure of the myths that were responsible for the ridicule of the oppressed groups. In identifying and struggling against such injustice the poor have to be able to buildup support structures which will give them strength, legitimacy and a sense of belonging. Evolve an organisation that would empower and sustain them through periods of struggle. This organisation was the Sangathan.
The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan was formed by a 1000 peasants and workers as on the Ist of May 1990 with the express purpose of providing a support structure for themselves. Having recognised the Jati Panchayats, the existing political parties, the religious organisations, the Government, and their village panchayats as deficient, if not destructive to processes of their own development, they had taken a decision to form their own organisation. The Sangathan continued to grow with every struggle.Issues of land, wages, and corruption began to be raised and perceptions relating to these issues were challenged. What were these perceptions?
The first and most important statement was the oft repeated one that "In this area nothing positive can happen."It came from years of unsuccessful individual attempts to get the system to change, and a series of betrayals by leaders and parties. From the decay in ethical values at a national level which has now ermeated every village. From a firm conviction that individualised bribery was the accepted norm. And most important from an imposed and now internalised image, that they were a set of people lost in laziness and alcoholism, who could never better themselves individually or collectively.
In village after village, people would say - "We can never improve our lot." Changing that attitude was the most difficult. After that the peoples own energies and momentum carried the effort forward.
The experience of collective strength and its effectiveness led to the formation of the Sangathan. Things that had never been done before were being accomplished. Land was wrested from a jagirdar and redistributed, though his family had control over it for centuries. Money pilfered by corrupt Sarpanches was extracted and restored to its rightful claimants. Government functionaries- from the Patwari and Gram Sewak to Secretaries to Governments, even the Chief Minister were seen as having to retract, change and reform because of public pressure. Even when the pressure was only seen as local.
In the land struggle in Sohangad village when the jagirdar mobilised the powerful Rajput lobby to help him retain exclusive and illegal control over land, the village responded with mobilising other villages across caste in order to counterbalance the caste lobby. The Sarpanch of Bhim,-a Rawat called Inder Singh, in another case, tried to appeal to the workers on the basis of their being "caste brothers" in order to avoid returning money he had pilfered. The workers publically gheraoed him and denounced him regardless of his being their relative.
The issue of minimum wages on Government works had been repeatedly raised and there had been numerous failures of organised attempts to get the minimum wage paid. Sustained efforts continued, and a year long campaign culminated in a 12 day dharna and hunger strike where 300 people sat night and day. The State Government converted a dispute into a major policy issue. At this time a committed core group with a strong ethical base demonstrated that it had the capacity to take on forces much greater than itself. The struggle was enough incentive to project this method of work as viable and attractive. When a small Sangathan from small town Bhim (almost a village); managed to get policy changed despite the State Governments very clearly pronounced intention to oppose payment of wages, the credibility of such efforts increased manifold. The efficacy of collective struggle no longer needed explaining.
The Sangathan( MKSS) is the source of the empowerment of the people in the area. No action of sustained and targeted confrontation is possible without a Sangathan. The MKSS is a peoples organisation which has grown out of shared understanding and action. There is a fair degree of solidarity amongst the committed workers. Recognition and credibility has increased with every agitation over issues of local concern. This has enabled the Sangathan to withstand opposition from organised and cohesive groups; whether they are the local jagirdars, the local political leaders, or the petty bureaucracy.
The ability to maintain an ethical position and be successful in local crises has increased the Sangathan's credibility with communities. There has been a sincere attempt to share information and MKSS's objectives with a large group of people who now understand and share these values. Ultimately the poor have understood the power of collective action.
THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COLLECTIVE
Any kind of collective economic activity, whether relating to markets , wages and value, or production and employment, has to be supported by a local power base. The initiation and support must come from such a group so that local destructive opposition can be countered. The shared responsibility for action creates a large support group , which monitors as well as publicizes the need for collectivism. People's involvement comes from sharing information and action. Personal interest and group interest can be matched,related or connected. The interest of the group is often the interest of the individual . But nevertheless there are degrees of personal sacrifice which have to be made by the individual for the group. For the poor collective action alone can guarantee success even though apparently some of the members may do better if they pursue their personal ambitions. Even if short term successes are linked to individual action being a member of an underprivileged group would mean that any lasting benefit could only come through continued membership of the collective.
Talking of the strength of group loyalty Amartya Sen writes :
"The members of each group may have partly congruent and partly conflicting interests. Actions based on group loyalty may involve, in some respects, a sacrifice of purely personal interests, just as they can also facilitate, in other respects, a greater fulfillment of personal interests. The relative balance of the two may vary. The congruent elements may be more dominant in, say, collusive action on the part of pressure groups agitating for concessions that help the interests of all the members, even though many agitators may also be willing to sacrifice some personal gains for the 'cause' of the group. In other relations, e.g. in many cases of family obligations, the extent of sacrifice could indeed be very large. The mixture of selfish and selfless behaviour is one of the important characteristics of group loyalty, and this mixture can be seen in a wide variety, of group associations varying from
kinship relations and communities to trade unions and economic pressure groups." 16
In other words the principles underlying the MKSS's role as a protest and pressure group, had to be transferred to its new function as an economic collective intervening in a conventional market, subject to all the forces which exist in a free market economy.
On the other hand the MKSS is not philanthropic organisation. The MKSS does not see itself as doing "tyag" or "seva." Though this is how it is often described by some members of the dominant group. Because in so doing, the act is deprived of its intention to effect long term change of a fundamental nature. Most important, the MKSS presented an alternative value base. In this case the economic enterprises were not set up for profit. The challenge was to have an alternative value base from which to operate and control economic relationships
Amartya Sen in his series of lectures on Ethics and Economics questions todays economic pundits who see efficiency and economic development as a direct out come of the free market: a market dominated and motivated by self interest alone.
"Indeed, it may not be quite as absurd to argue that people always actually do maximize their self-interest, as it is to argue that rationality must invariably demand maximization of self-interest. Universal selfishness as actuality may well be false, but universal selfishness as a requirement of rationality is patently absurd."17
He continues:
"However, the success of a free market does not tell us anything at all about what motivation lies behind the action of economic agents in such an economy. Indeed, in the case of Japan, there is strong empirical evidence to suggest that systematic departures from self-interested behaviour in the direction of duty, loyalty and goodwill have played a substantial part in industrial success." 18
The MKSS rejected this concept theoretically and in practice. It understood and accepted that, there are no alternatives to group action. The MKSS also had to work out the particular dynamics through which self interest and group interest could be matched, related or connected.
THE PRIMARY ISSUE
A review of the Sangathan's activities takes us back to its initial phase of empowerment. A crucial period where collective identification of primary issues was necessary before anything could begin to happen.
After the Sangathan had been born, and a power base created, issues had to be taken up. The Sangathan had thus far worked from incident to incident, issue to issue. There was a limited process of reflection, but only relating to the struggle from which one had just emerged or the next one under consideration. An internal demand began to be felt for more detailed thought and planned action. It was necessary to be able to evolve and present a vision of what we were working towards, a dream we could share and shape as we went along.
What are the primary issues for small formers and labourers? Wages, and value of work is the obvious one. However, in an area with few employment opportunities: employment and work are twin issues. In the atmosphere of the New Economic Policy and the sacrosanct value given to the market mechanism, it is an issue that will affect us all. For an area that has been left ecologically barren, local productivity of a regenerative kind is obviously of great importance.
In its new focus the three categories to be emphasised by the Sangathan were work and productivity, wages and their value and markets.
WAGES AND VALUE
B.D.Sharma as Commissioner Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes says in his report :
"I have referred to in my last report the unconstitutionality of the dualistic system in the determination of wages and salaries for the organised and the unorganised sectors. But this serious constitutional issue has not been even discussed so far in any forum. This duality is at the root of inequity in our country." 19
In the initial plans our dependencies on and expectations from the Government were an outstanding feature. We demanded it pay minimum wages. We demanded it implement the laws that benefit the poor.
The MKSS also demanded that the Government provide employment and that Government respond to complaints against corrupt functionaries. Other demands were that it provide sufficient quantities of ration through the P.D.S, that it improve the system of loaning. The schools and its were another Government institutional structure that drew the specific attention of the Sangathan.
The reasons for such demands are not difficult to find. The area is economically poor. Landholdings are small. The working population migrates. There is no industry. The ecology is bankrupt. The only powerful force in the area over whom some claims can be made is the Government. People did not see themselves as capable of being able to provide for their own development. As the impotence of the Gover