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Journalism of Courage
It took more than 12 years for 48-year-old Vijaya Chavan to finally receive her dues of over Rs 2 lakh in minimum wages from the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. Chavan, a contractual waste worker, had to wage a long and tedious legal battle to get PCMC to pay her dues. On the eve of Independence Day, Chavan has more than this being a special day to cheer for — she managed to pay the first instalment of her own flat where she will shift from her present home in a slum.
Chavan, with the help of the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPK), a trade union of waste pickers, had decided to approach the labour court when she realised they were not being paid as per the Minimum Wages Act. “Using RTI, I managed to get documents like attendance rolls, relevant GRs etc. The fight was scary… We were threatened often,” she said.
At the labour court, the opposing lawyers tried to prove that the waste workers were making money by selling waste they collected. There were attempts to show how contractual workers were not eligible.
“There was a split among us as some of us decided to join hands with the opposing party. However, some of us knew we were right and decided to fight till the end,” she said. Chavan, who has not studied past Class 6, took the help of her cooperative and moved the courts in 2012 where she was diligently present for almost every hearing. “I finished my work by 2 pm and then went all the way to Shivajinagar to be present for hearing whenever called. Invariably there were one or two hearings per month,” she said. A total of 310 waste workers managed to get their dues for one of the two cases they had filed before the labour court.
The battle was not equal. Chavan was a contractual worker, so her fear of being laid off had always been there. Now that she has managed to win the case, Chavan says it took time but it was worth the fight. “However, I wish we did not have to wait so long for the fight- legally it was our right,” she said.
