Disappointment and anxiety have started replacing the spirit of agitation among the poverty-stricken woman workers of Munnar tea plantations in Kerala, who are on a strike since September 30 demanding wage hike as the plantation management is refusing to honour the demand and the State Government is showing no signs of willingness to effectively intervene in the issue.
Many among the thousands of woman estate workers who are on strike admit that they “cannot go on like this” as the meager stocks of rice in their houses have exhausted during the past seven days of strike and no money is left to buy food or medicine because no wages are coming as they are abstaining from work. “Why should the Government be this cruelIJ Why should it betray us after promising to get our wages hikedIJ There is no food in the families and there is no money for medicine or to send the kids to schools. Do the management and the Government want to push us into slow deathIJ” asked Kamachi, one of the striking women, with tears welling in her eyes.
In the context of the failure of Monday’s meeting of the Plantation labour Committee (PlC), the body authorised to take decisions on plantation labour matters, to find a solution, anxiety has begun to spread through the layams, the single-room shacks where workers in Munnar live, with a feeling being created that the Govt is deliberately refusing to view the issue seriously. The PlC is meeting again on Wednesday but the women find no reason to expect a positive outcome from it as the plantation managements have so far not shown any sign of relenting. “Before the talks started (on Monday), Oommen Chandy had given us promises. But nothing happened. How can we trust the Government nowIJ” asked a worker.