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Life Story Of Jawahar: Rakesh Kumar Singh
JOURNEY FROM JHALLI TO TRADE UNION
"Market me jab mazdooron ko shoshan badhne laga, dukandar aur vyapari mazdooron ko tang karne lage tab humne ek sangathan banaya, mazdooron ke huque ki ladai ladi, hadtalen ki, market band karwaya ....... " (When the oppression of the mabour starting increasing, the shop keepers and businessmen started misusing their powers, then we decided to organise ourselves. We decided to fight for the rights of the labour, we went on strikes, got the market closed etc..)
Jawahar Lal
A boy from a land less laborer class came to this city 26 years ago. Did number of laboring work right from Jhalli to trolley contractor, organised workers against their exploitation, became the general secretary of a trade union of more than 2000 workers , now owns a house in Delhi- is no one else but Jawahar Lal who is today known as pradhanji in Lajpatrai market. And not only the laborers but the shop owners salute him today, 'Pradhanji ram-ram'.
After passing matriculation he got a daily wage job in Telephone department at his native place in Simri police station, district Buxar, Bihar. But he didn't find the job suitable for him for two reason, "ek to kam temporary tha aur dusra paise bahut kam milte the". By 1997, he decided to come to Delhi. He spent his first night at one of his relatives place, who was working in Bhagirath Place and had a rented house in Kaithwadi, Usmanpur in Trans Yamuna area. He had earlier thought that he would work in a factory, therefore, he was not really happy with his first job. However, since his relative was here, he hadn't face any problem of food and shelter. He spent almost one week without any job. After that he decided to work in Lajpatrai Market. And the only option which he could figure out was jhalli's work. So he dropped in Azad market with a villager and purchased a jhalli for Rs. 2 and started carrying load in Lajpatrai market. And for lodging he hired a room for Rs. 35 per month in Usmanpur.
At that time there was not any token system in the market, anyone could start the jhallis work. "Token to jab Kiran Bedi aayi thi uske baad hi start hua. Mere khyal se 1987 me", he says. According to him the present token issued by CREMA is quite different from those issued by Kiran Bedi. He doesn't speaks about the present token system much except, "dher sare association bante gaye aur apna-apna token issue karte gaye. Jo bhi ho yeh tab shuru hua jab jhalli ke upar dukandaron ka vishwash kam ho gaya". So,after 6 months working as a jhalli he got some contancts in the market which resulted transformation of his profile. Now he started delivering malls to the transporters but on head. Since he was a literate and learning the work rapidly, he started getting more and more contact in the market, Which resulted in getting more and more assignments for him. He bought a trolley and started carrying the load and thus his life started becoming smooth. But very soon a misshappening occurred in his life, his trolley was stolen. So, this time he decided not to buy trolley, "200 rupaye me khareeda tha aur chori ho gayi. Itna mehnat karne ke bad to paise milte hain aur who bhi isi tarah gawan dena bahut bura laga". (I bought it in 200 rupees and it got stolen. Loosing hard earned money like this was very hard)
Now he's hired one on monthly basis for Rs. 35 (the practice of hiring thella is still prevalent in the market) and continued the same work for 10 years. He says,"un dinon mahine me kewal 25 din hi kam hota tha baki din ghar me baithna padta tha." (In those daysthere used be work for only 25 days, the rest 5 days, one used to sit at home) After that he became a contractor. He had 10-15 trolley men working under him. At that time trolley men's maximum daily earnings was not more that Rs. 100 per day but they had lot of problems in their working condition. Shopkeepers, businessmen, MCD People and police all used to exploit them. In case of loss of commodities shopkeepers used to charge double or sometimes more than double of the original cost of commodities, which our men used to compensate by working for him without any wage for years. Therefore in 1989 he decided to organise the workers in the market. For doing that, "market me bahut se states ke log rahte hain, humne unse baat kiya, logon ko meri baat achhi lagi aur dhire-dhire log ikattha hone lage, fir humne ek samiti banayi" says he.
Thus he made an organisation and very soon large number of workers joined the organisation. "Aaj 'Dilli Mazdoor Sangh' ke sadasyon ki sankhya 2000 se bhi adhik hai", he says proudly. Delhi Thela Mazdoor Sangh is affliated with AITUC, the trade union of Communist Party of India. About the affliation of his organisation Jawahar Lal says, "there was a leader in CPI called Shiv Sagarji, after looking our work here he extended his support to us and that way we got affiliated with AITUC. From 1989 to 1992 it ran informally. In 1992 the first election held to elect the office bearers, President and General Secretary. Surendra Singh was elected the president while Jawahar Lalji General Secretary. He says that people gave me full support and donated for my election more than their capacity.
The election is conducted and managed by the workers of the market after every 5 years. According to Jawaharlalji there is voter list of workers with the organisation. The rule is that only those can contest who are the member of the organisation and again the voters are the same. So, when the next election held in 1997 he again elected General Secretary for the second term. According to him there is no arrangement of parking, stalls came into exhistance, there is no parking space for trolley men to park their trollies, very frequently corporation and police people come and harass the workes, shopkeepers behaviour are not good with the workers- these all forced us to agitate. "union banane ke baad kafi dange fasad hue. Market band kiya, hadtal kiya, aur safalta bhi mil. Ab police walle us tarah se tang nahin karte hain, dukandaron ki badmashi bhi thodi kam hui hai" says he. Last year he was elected General Secretary for third consecutive term. He says, "the person who was elected president with me in the first election has left the market but I am here and I will here for ever. Yahan se ja bhi kahan sakta hun. Main to samaj sewa ka kam karta hun aur karta rahunga."
On behalf of his organisation he himself issues organisation issues identity cards to the workers in the market (which I had to verifyyet). The content of the I card is as follows:
Parichaya Patra Delhi Thela Mazdoor Sangh (registered) Nam ..... kam.... 4/7 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi sambandhit, AITUC
Showing another laminated card Jawahar Lalji says CREMA also issues I cards to the contractors for safety of shopkeepers good. He says, "are sab aise hi hain, mazdooron ki aun sunta hai, kisko mazdooron ke bare me sochne ki fursat hai, apne liye to tarah tarah ka card issue karte hain". He says the workers still face lot of problems. They have to pay hafta to police per month otherwise they harass a lot to them. But he opines that without struggle nothing will be achieved so that the struggle will go on.
"In 1977 radio was the main thing for which the market was known. After that tape recorder came, the number of Tvs was very few" says he. After that the deck and music system came which was the dominant item till early 1990s. Now it is completely cd/vcd market. According to him the earlier days were good for the workers because then we had enough work to do. Pointing out the reason of lowering down the work he says, "tab chhote-chhote vyapari bhi kam kar sakte the. Choti punji se kam ho jata tha lekin aab jab se yeh badlaw hua hai chote vyapariyon ke liye kam mushkil ho gaya hai, kyonki ab to karoron ki lagat zaroori ho gayi hai. Lakh walon ko kaun puchta hai." According to him 2002 was a year which witnessed the domnation of Chinese goods in the market and this domination has affected the laboring communty also.
In fact Jawahar Lalji is person of dynamic personality. His association is not limited to market only. He has formed another organisation 'Muhalla Sudhar Samiti' in his colony. "Samaj sewa ke kam me kafi interest hai mujhe, gali-mohalla me sadak, safai sab tarah ka kam karta hun", says he. Besides this he is also working with 'Bihar Samaj Samiti', whose members are spread all over Delhi. Recently he is nominated the president of Chandni Chowk unit of this organisation in a conference held on 11th June 2003. in Rajendra Bhawan. Beside others the conference was attended by chief minister of Delhi Smt. Shila Dikshit, former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav, Principal of Kirorimal College Bhim Singh and the principal of Deshbandhu College (jawahar Lal was unable to recall his name at that moment). According to him a charter of demand was handed over to the chief minister by the samiti. Some of the prominent demands according to Jawahar were:
>there should be no discrimination in issuing ration cards and election I cards to people from.
>since the Bihari people are in large number from beauracracy to laboring so that at 25 assembly seats in Delhi shoud be reserved for people form Bihar.
>since we are almost half of the Delhi population so that there should be proper arrangement of education and employment for our children.
>There should be subsidised medical facilities for them. Thus Jawahar Lalji is person, who is involved at different places at a time. His assocation with organisations not ends here. He is also a worker of Congress Party. At the moment he works with several organinsations he equally devote time with his family. After leaving 7 years on rent he purchased a 25 square yard plot of land in Usmanpur. Now he has a double story house. His all four sons are 10th pass. The eldest one is working with him in the market, mainly assisting him. The second one is studying in 12th and at the same time he is looking for job. Third one is studying in 10th while the youngest is in class 8th. His only daughter couldn't study beyond 8th because of illness. Inspite of living or settling in Delhi for the past 26 years his relationship with village is still live. He still goes to his village on the interval of 6 months. Now he has some land in his village, which his father has bought. In fact his brother does cultivation there, mainly share cropping. After the death of his father his mother and brother's family is staying in the village. Jawahar sends money to him occasionally, whenever they demand.
But the moment he thinks about his future,especially of his children he becomes worried. "Andhkarmay lagta hai bhavishya. Bada ladka ka daswin ke bad rojkar karyalaya me nam likhwa diya, medical ka training karwaya, dir bhi time nahin mila", he says in one go. He further says, "we are mallah, which is schedule caste in Delhi, inspite of having caste certificate for the last 10 years we are not getting job." His son had applied in MCD against a vacancy but did not got through. Who cares for the poor? He has not any hope form the organisations and political parties for which he works sincerely. "Sochata hun kisi dukandar se 50-25 hazaar rupaya lekar kahin kisi ko de dun naukari ke liye, lekin kya karen kahin koi kam hi nahin hai. Ab ghar par bhi to nahin chod sakte hain bachchon ko, awaragardi karne lagenge. Aisi halat me hum kya kar sakte hain", he says. His second son has recently given an interview for some training of leather goods in a government institution in Wazirpur industrial ares but he do not know much about that training, "kya hoga usme, kuch banana sikhayenge. Ho sakta hai uske baad kisi jute ute ki company me kam-wam mil jayega". Finally looking me he asks, "aapke nazar me koi kam-wam hai to bataiye na"? (what will happen in that? We might learn to make something, it is possible that we migth get some work in a show company. Finally he says, if there's any work that you know that I can do, then will you let me know?)
"Market me jab mazdooron ko shoshan badhne laga, dukandar aur vyapari mazdooron ko tang karne lage tab humne ek sangathan banaya, mazdooron ke huque ki ladai ladi, hadtalen ki, market band karwaya ....... " (When the oppression of the mabour starting increasing, the shop keepers and businessmen started misusing their powers, then we decided to organise ourselves. We decided to fight for the rights of the labour, we went on strikes, got the market closed etc..)
Jawahar Lal
A boy from a land less laborer class came to this city 26 years ago. Did number of laboring work right from Jhalli to trolley contractor, organised workers against their exploitation, became the general secretary of a trade union of more than 2000 workers , now owns a house in Delhi- is no one else but Jawahar Lal who is today known as pradhanji in Lajpatrai market. And not only the laborers but the shop owners salute him today, 'Pradhanji ram-ram'.
After passing matriculation he got a daily wage job in Telephone department at his native place in Simri police station, district Buxar, Bihar. But he didn't find the job suitable for him for two reason, "ek to kam temporary tha aur dusra paise bahut kam milte the". By 1997, he decided to come to Delhi. He spent his first night at one of his relatives place, who was working in Bhagirath Place and had a rented house in Kaithwadi, Usmanpur in Trans Yamuna area. He had earlier thought that he would work in a factory, therefore, he was not really happy with his first job. However, since his relative was here, he hadn't face any problem of food and shelter. He spent almost one week without any job. After that he decided to work in Lajpatrai Market. And the only option which he could figure out was jhalli's work. So he dropped in Azad market with a villager and purchased a jhalli for Rs. 2 and started carrying load in Lajpatrai market. And for lodging he hired a room for Rs. 35 per month in Usmanpur.
At that time there was not any token system in the market, anyone could start the jhallis work. "Token to jab Kiran Bedi aayi thi uske baad hi start hua. Mere khyal se 1987 me", he says. According to him the present token issued by CREMA is quite different from those issued by Kiran Bedi. He doesn't speaks about the present token system much except, "dher sare association bante gaye aur apna-apna token issue karte gaye. Jo bhi ho yeh tab shuru hua jab jhalli ke upar dukandaron ka vishwash kam ho gaya". So,after 6 months working as a jhalli he got some contancts in the market which resulted transformation of his profile. Now he started delivering malls to the transporters but on head. Since he was a literate and learning the work rapidly, he started getting more and more contact in the market, Which resulted in getting more and more assignments for him. He bought a trolley and started carrying the load and thus his life started becoming smooth. But very soon a misshappening occurred in his life, his trolley was stolen. So, this time he decided not to buy trolley, "200 rupaye me khareeda tha aur chori ho gayi. Itna mehnat karne ke bad to paise milte hain aur who bhi isi tarah gawan dena bahut bura laga". (I bought it in 200 rupees and it got stolen. Loosing hard earned money like this was very hard)
Now he's hired one on monthly basis for Rs. 35 (the practice of hiring thella is still prevalent in the market) and continued the same work for 10 years. He says,"un dinon mahine me kewal 25 din hi kam hota tha baki din ghar me baithna padta tha." (In those daysthere used be work for only 25 days, the rest 5 days, one used to sit at home) After that he became a contractor. He had 10-15 trolley men working under him. At that time trolley men's maximum daily earnings was not more that Rs. 100 per day but they had lot of problems in their working condition. Shopkeepers, businessmen, MCD People and police all used to exploit them. In case of loss of commodities shopkeepers used to charge double or sometimes more than double of the original cost of commodities, which our men used to compensate by working for him without any wage for years. Therefore in 1989 he decided to organise the workers in the market. For doing that, "market me bahut se states ke log rahte hain, humne unse baat kiya, logon ko meri baat achhi lagi aur dhire-dhire log ikattha hone lage, fir humne ek samiti banayi" says he.
Thus he made an organisation and very soon large number of workers joined the organisation. "Aaj 'Dilli Mazdoor Sangh' ke sadasyon ki sankhya 2000 se bhi adhik hai", he says proudly. Delhi Thela Mazdoor Sangh is affliated with AITUC, the trade union of Communist Party of India. About the affliation of his organisation Jawahar Lal says, "there was a leader in CPI called Shiv Sagarji, after looking our work here he extended his support to us and that way we got affiliated with AITUC. From 1989 to 1992 it ran informally. In 1992 the first election held to elect the office bearers, President and General Secretary. Surendra Singh was elected the president while Jawahar Lalji General Secretary. He says that people gave me full support and donated for my election more than their capacity.
The election is conducted and managed by the workers of the market after every 5 years. According to Jawaharlalji there is voter list of workers with the organisation. The rule is that only those can contest who are the member of the organisation and again the voters are the same. So, when the next election held in 1997 he again elected General Secretary for the second term. According to him there is no arrangement of parking, stalls came into exhistance, there is no parking space for trolley men to park their trollies, very frequently corporation and police people come and harass the workes, shopkeepers behaviour are not good with the workers- these all forced us to agitate. "union banane ke baad kafi dange fasad hue. Market band kiya, hadtal kiya, aur safalta bhi mil. Ab police walle us tarah se tang nahin karte hain, dukandaron ki badmashi bhi thodi kam hui hai" says he. Last year he was elected General Secretary for third consecutive term. He says, "the person who was elected president with me in the first election has left the market but I am here and I will here for ever. Yahan se ja bhi kahan sakta hun. Main to samaj sewa ka kam karta hun aur karta rahunga."
On behalf of his organisation he himself issues organisation issues identity cards to the workers in the market (which I had to verifyyet). The content of the I card is as follows:
Parichaya Patra Delhi Thela Mazdoor Sangh (registered) Nam ..... kam.... 4/7 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi sambandhit, AITUC
Showing another laminated card Jawahar Lalji says CREMA also issues I cards to the contractors for safety of shopkeepers good. He says, "are sab aise hi hain, mazdooron ki aun sunta hai, kisko mazdooron ke bare me sochne ki fursat hai, apne liye to tarah tarah ka card issue karte hain". He says the workers still face lot of problems. They have to pay hafta to police per month otherwise they harass a lot to them. But he opines that without struggle nothing will be achieved so that the struggle will go on.
"In 1977 radio was the main thing for which the market was known. After that tape recorder came, the number of Tvs was very few" says he. After that the deck and music system came which was the dominant item till early 1990s. Now it is completely cd/vcd market. According to him the earlier days were good for the workers because then we had enough work to do. Pointing out the reason of lowering down the work he says, "tab chhote-chhote vyapari bhi kam kar sakte the. Choti punji se kam ho jata tha lekin aab jab se yeh badlaw hua hai chote vyapariyon ke liye kam mushkil ho gaya hai, kyonki ab to karoron ki lagat zaroori ho gayi hai. Lakh walon ko kaun puchta hai." According to him 2002 was a year which witnessed the domnation of Chinese goods in the market and this domination has affected the laboring communty also.
In fact Jawahar Lalji is person of dynamic personality. His association is not limited to market only. He has formed another organisation 'Muhalla Sudhar Samiti' in his colony. "Samaj sewa ke kam me kafi interest hai mujhe, gali-mohalla me sadak, safai sab tarah ka kam karta hun", says he. Besides this he is also working with 'Bihar Samaj Samiti', whose members are spread all over Delhi. Recently he is nominated the president of Chandni Chowk unit of this organisation in a conference held on 11th June 2003. in Rajendra Bhawan. Beside others the conference was attended by chief minister of Delhi Smt. Shila Dikshit, former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav, Principal of Kirorimal College Bhim Singh and the principal of Deshbandhu College (jawahar Lal was unable to recall his name at that moment). According to him a charter of demand was handed over to the chief minister by the samiti. Some of the prominent demands according to Jawahar were:
>there should be no discrimination in issuing ration cards and election I cards to people from.
>since the Bihari people are in large number from beauracracy to laboring so that at 25 assembly seats in Delhi shoud be reserved for people form Bihar.
>since we are almost half of the Delhi population so that there should be proper arrangement of education and employment for our children.
>There should be subsidised medical facilities for them. Thus Jawahar Lalji is person, who is involved at different places at a time. His assocation with organisations not ends here. He is also a worker of Congress Party. At the moment he works with several organinsations he equally devote time with his family. After leaving 7 years on rent he purchased a 25 square yard plot of land in Usmanpur. Now he has a double story house. His all four sons are 10th pass. The eldest one is working with him in the market, mainly assisting him. The second one is studying in 12th and at the same time he is looking for job. Third one is studying in 10th while the youngest is in class 8th. His only daughter couldn't study beyond 8th because of illness. Inspite of living or settling in Delhi for the past 26 years his relationship with village is still live. He still goes to his village on the interval of 6 months. Now he has some land in his village, which his father has bought. In fact his brother does cultivation there, mainly share cropping. After the death of his father his mother and brother's family is staying in the village. Jawahar sends money to him occasionally, whenever they demand.
But the moment he thinks about his future,especially of his children he becomes worried. "Andhkarmay lagta hai bhavishya. Bada ladka ka daswin ke bad rojkar karyalaya me nam likhwa diya, medical ka training karwaya, dir bhi time nahin mila", he says in one go. He further says, "we are mallah, which is schedule caste in Delhi, inspite of having caste certificate for the last 10 years we are not getting job." His son had applied in MCD against a vacancy but did not got through. Who cares for the poor? He has not any hope form the organisations and political parties for which he works sincerely. "Sochata hun kisi dukandar se 50-25 hazaar rupaya lekar kahin kisi ko de dun naukari ke liye, lekin kya karen kahin koi kam hi nahin hai. Ab ghar par bhi to nahin chod sakte hain bachchon ko, awaragardi karne lagenge. Aisi halat me hum kya kar sakte hain", he says. His second son has recently given an interview for some training of leather goods in a government institution in Wazirpur industrial ares but he do not know much about that training, "kya hoga usme, kuch banana sikhayenge. Ho sakta hai uske baad kisi jute ute ki company me kam-wam mil jayega". Finally looking me he asks, "aapke nazar me koi kam-wam hai to bataiye na"? (what will happen in that? We might learn to make something, it is possible that we migth get some work in a show company. Finally he says, if there's any work that you know that I can do, then will you let me know?)