Hyderabad: Chief Minister Revanth Reddy on Thursday, May 21, announced a major revision of minimum wages benefiting 1.11 crore workers across Telangana, with the new rates taking effect from June 1 this year.
Addressing a press conference, Reddy said the revision was based on recommendations of a Cabinet sub-committee headed by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, which consulted all stakeholders before finalising its report.
Four categories, three zones
Workers have been classified into four categories – unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled – and the state divided into three zones for wage determination. Zone 1 covers municipal corporations, Zone 2 municipalities and Zone 3 rural areas.
In Zone 1, the minimum wage for unskilled workers has been raised from Rs 12,750 to Rs 16,000, semi-skilled workers from Rs 13,152 to Rs 17,000, skilled workers from Rs 13,772 to Rs 18,500 and highly skilled workers from Rs 14,607 to Rs 20,000.
‘First major decision for workers since state formation’
“As many as 1.11 crore workers will benefit from this decision. I congratulate the workers on behalf of the Government of Telangana. This is the first major decision taken for workers’ welfare since the formation of the state,” Revanth Reddy said.
He blamed the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government for failing to revise wages, saying workers had suffered due to prolonged inaction on minimum wage fixation during that regime.
A token increase: Left
However, trade unions saw the decision as a token increase, that too after 15 years.
“There is just an increase of Rs 2,000 for unskilled workers, which comes to Rs 6 per day, and Rs 1,000 for semi-skilled workers. There is an increase by Rs 4,000 for skilled workers. Our consistent demand for a decade and a half has been Rs 26,000 as minimum wages for unskilled workers,” K Rajaiah, a state committee member of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said.
CITU’s demand began with Rs 18,000 per month for these unskilled workers, who according to Rajaiah, form 1.5 lakh workers in Sangareddy district alone. They are the ones who toil their sweat and blood, working mostly in the industrial areas like Patancheru, Pasha Mylaram, IDA Bollarum, Jinnaram, and Gaddapotharam to name a few.
What about Anganwadi, ASHA, mid-day meal workers, VOAs!
Apart from them, Rajaiah says there will be another 50,000 scheme workers in just Sangareddy district. He tells Siasat.com that these scheme workers include but are not limited to the Anganwadi teachers and helpers (Aayas), Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA workers), Village Organisation Assistants (VOA), and the mid-day meal workers.
Sangareddy district, which was part of the undivided Medak district, has been known for workers’ movements, and companies going from rich to sick in no time at the strike of a pen. Thousands of families got financially shattered.
Allwyn, Nizam Sugars….many more
The state-owned Hyderabad Allwyn Limited shut down its operations in 1995. Allwyn was famous for manufacturing refrigerators, watches, and scooters, but was declared a sick industry by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in 1993, leading to the fragmentation and privatisation of its divisions.
Nizam Deccan Sugars Limited (NDSL), popularly known as the Nizam Sugar Factory (NSF), is a sugar manufacturing enterprise that was established in 1937 by Mir Osman Ali Khan, the seventh and last Nizam of the erstwhile Hyderabad State, at Bodhan in present-day Nirmal district, Telangana, India.
The company also had its own manufacturing unit in Medak town, which also became defunct, at the stroke of a pen. The pen had then just changed the the lives of thousands of families, who had spent their entire lives serving the Nizam’s government and successive state governments for over 65 years.
The shut down of the Nizam’s factories crippled the sugarcane industry in the region by affecting thousands of generations of highly-skilled workers and farmers, who are yet to recover from survival different phases of emergencies since the early 1990s.
The senior citizens, once the industrious workers living in Medak town, at Mombojipally village, in the now sick company’s staff quarters, have been a witness to what the transfer of just 2 percent in shares from the then State-run enterprise to a private enterprise- could do to the lives of generations in their families.
Any change in the minimum wages doesn’t affect them, as they are at the tail-end of their lives.
The Sirpur Paper Mills Ltd located in Kagaznagar of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district in Telangana, was also one such company established by the seventh Nizam of the Hyderabad State Mir Osman Ali Khan in 1937, had also gone under a similar situation and had to be shut down. Efforts are on to revive the once declared sick unit presently.
On caste census
Welcoming the Supreme Court’s recent verdict on caste census, Revanth Reddy said Telangana had already conducted a caste census alongside the population census and made the findings public.
“We consider it an honour that the Supreme Court supported the Telangana decision. Telangana has become a model for the country,” he said, calling on the Narendra Modi government to include caste census in the national population census and ensure adequate representation for weaker sections across all sectors.
(With PTI inputs)
