THE CITU and other mass organisations in Karnataka have undertaken massive relief work among the people, particularly the poor and the working class, during the ongoing lockdown to check the spread of the novel coronavirus. The CITU launched a special drive – Asangatitharige Annapoorna Sankalpa–Nimmondige Naavu CITU Pracharabhiyana – to help the unorganized sector workers who have been hit the hardest due to the lockdown. It was decided to provide food hampers with 18 essential items, at a cost of Rs 800 each, to at least 10,000 families in the state. The All India Insurance Employees Association (AIIEA), All India Lawyers Union (AILU), All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS) and Science Movement activists joined in the drive at various levels and districts across the state.

The drive began at the RMC yard in Yeshwanthpur of Bangalore. Later, we reached out to domestic workers, auto-rickshaw drivers, construction workers, street vendors, transgenders, agricultural labourers and the disabled. During the drive, hundreds of migrant workers – in both organised and unorganised sectors – from West Bengal, Tripura, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh started approaching the CITU for relief aid. The Tripura Mog Adivasi Tribal Association in Bangalore also approached for relief aid. The overwhelming response of the contributors enabled us to reach around 8,000 families in Bangalore urban and rural districts alone. Further in Tumkur, Mysore, Mandya, Bellary, Koppal, Mangalore, Udupi, KGF, Chikkaballapura, Davanagere, Hubli, Uttara Kannada and Belgaum, around 2,000 needy families were provided with grocery. In total, more than one crore rupees were pooled online for this drive.

In addition to this, cooked food was served to those in the frontline of the fight against the deadly Covid-19, including police personnel and healthcare workers, in several places. Sanitizers and masks were also distributed among the people by several mass organisations. In Bellary, KPRS and CITU jointly fed hundreds of migrant workers who were walking back to their natives from Bangalore and other places. In Mangalore, DYFI distributed dry food items. In various districts, the CITU and other mass organisations distributed dry food items.

JOINT EFFORTS BY TRADE UNIONS

The CITU intervened in the relief work undertaken by the Karnataka State Building and Other Construction Workers Social Security Board in the form of providing them dry ration and cooked food. The CITU mobilised all central trade unions and intervened to provide volunteers to cater cooked food to 75,000 construction and other migrant unorganised workers every day. A joint committee of trade unions (JCTU) consisting of INTUC, AITUC, CITU, HMS, AIUTUC, AICCTU, HMKP, TUCC, GATWU was also mobilised to provide trade union representatives to all 198 wards of Bruhath Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), along with four volunteers per ward to reach out the last mile connectivity. 44 ward TU representatives among 198 and three zonal coordinators among eight zones were from CITU. In total around thousand TU volunteers from all JCTU partners are working each day to distribute cooked food packets among construction and other unorganised workers.

Amidst this intervention with the slogan of ‘unity and struggle’ to reach out the unreached, CITU marked Ambedkar Jayanthi on April 14 with Constitution Preamble stickers campaign, wherein 10,000 stickers with the preamble of the Indian constitution were distributed and pasted on the doors of the workers to whom the cooked food were distributed across BBMP wards.

Further CITU initiated an effective intervention along with other JCTU partners to see that Social Security Board funds are utilised only to reach those who are to be catered. Hence, checkmated the state government at every stage when it attempted to misuse the same to cater social security board funds to its local vote centric distribution instead of to those hunger centric needy migrant people who are not local voters. As a result the state government was forced to include CITU Leaders as nodal officers on behalf of trade unions both at labour department and BBMP.

The CITU-led JCTU intervened and prevailed upon the state BJP government to think of providing at least Rs 1,000 monetary relief to all unorganised workers in spite of having no funds in Karnataka State Unorganised Workers Social Security Board. The state government all through maintained that unorganised workers could not be given any monetary relief on par with workers due to lack of funds in the Board. Further the state government was constrained to come out with an order directing the employers to provide salary for the lockdown period of non-production days and not to terminate any of the workers unable to attend their work during the said period, on April 13. But the same was rescinded on April 15 to suit the interests of big corporate houses as per the appeal of employers’ associations, which was vehemently opposed by CITU and all other central trade unions. The CITU leadership met labour minister, Covid-19 relief spokesperson minister and chief secretary of the state government and urged for relief to both organised, unorganised and scheme workers and for necessary PPE’s, medical insurance to the scheme workers who are in front line team fighting Covid-19 pandemic across the state.

Against this too, the CITU state committee planned a one million WhatsApp message campaign to five officers of chief minister office from April 15-21 with a “Campaign Week demanding Relief to the Working Class of the State”, whereby lakhs of WhatsApp Messages chocked the CMO’s officers WhatsApp compelling the state government to come out with a proposal of at least Rs 1000 monetary relief to the unorganised workers also. The WhatsApp campaign has constrained the state BJP government to convene tripartite meeting to discuss the salary and working conditions of the organised industries workers during and post lockdown period.

CITU, Karnataka has undertaken this campaign to realise ‘unity and struggle’ in the service of the working class with a slogan of “Stay Home – Stay Safe – Let’s Fight Covid-19 – Ensure Social Unity with Physical Distance” and is involved in relief works with its volunteers force at the ground level.