Salt pan workers bare sores

July 2: Over 700 workers, a majority of them in the age group of 10 to 20 years, employed in saltpans across Thane district have not been p...

July 2: Over 700 workers, a majority of them in the age group of 10 to 20 years, employed in saltpans across Thane district have not been paid their wages for the last seven months.

Over 300 of these workers took out a morcha to the sub-divisional officer in Dahanu on Friday urging immediate intervention by the government. The owners of 13 saltpans owe a total of Rs 27 lakh to 391 workers employed with them.

The workers, majority of them illiterate, have come together under the banner of Kashtakari Sanghatana. Only two employers, Vasai Machhimar Sahakari Sanstha and Sadguru Salt Works, have paid their workers. Besides the late payment, the workers face health hazards also. They complained that continuous work in the pans resulted into poor-eyesight and skin burns.

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The 10-year-old Santu Bheskar of Chalni village can’t open his eyes fully. Continuous work in the saltpans has affected his vision. This is Bheskar’s second year at the saltpan.

Last year, he was brought to work here with a promise of Rs 6,000 per annum plus a bonus of Rs 500 if he worked for seven months. But he was paid less than Rs 2,000. Santu, however, has no options. He has a family to look after. He will come back next year.

“This year, I am working in a different saltpan and my employer has promised me Rs 6,000,” he said. He hoped that his presence in the morcha might help him get at least a part of the promised sum.

His friend, 12-year-old Vishram also from Chalni, has been working in the saltpans for the last eight years. His feet have developed sores due to exposure to salt.

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Vishram visits his family in October every year. “Such morchas are an annual affair. Unless we protest and demand money, nobody pays any attention to us,” he said. “I have to come back to the saltpans every year as there is no other job in my village,” he added.

Majority of the workers are not aware of their rights. They work for all the seven days in a week. They are not given any leave. “If we do not report to the saltpan for a day, the employer deducts Rs 25 from our wages,” said 10-year-old Shantaram Sonya Diva who works as a `bhandari’ (cook) in Krupa Prasad Salt Works.

Diva’s day starts at 3 am every day. He collects firewood, fetches water and cooks food twice a day. “Himjibhai, who brought me for work here, drinks and beats me up every evening,” he said.

The rains have brought some succour to him. It’s time to visit home. When asked what he will do with the money, he said, “I will buy broken rice which is much cheaper. It will last longer.”

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Shiraz Balsara, who established Kashtakari Sanghatana, said that morchas by these workers are held every year. “Unless we organise these workers and demand wages, nobody pays any attention,” she said.

The owners employ a different set of people every year to prevent any revolt, she added. While some of the workers are fortunate enough to get Rs 25 to Rs 30 per day, others are not even paid the minimum wages, Balsara said. Pradip Prabhu, another Sanghatana activist, informed that last year a worker committed suicide after he did not receive his wages. “We do not want anything of this sort to take place again,” he said.