People's Democracy

(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Vol. XXIX

No. 32

August 07, 2005

AIDWA Report On Gurgaon Brutality

 

Following is the report of an AIDWA delegation which visited Gurgaon after the brutal attack on workers of Honda factory.

 

AN AIDWA delegation comprising of Subhashini Ali, President, Sudha Sundararaman, general secrtary, Kalindi Deshpande, Pramila Pandhe - both vice president, Sehba Farooqui and Usha Rajendar, Saroha, district president visited the workers of the Honda factory in Gurgaon who had been badly injured in the brutal lathicharge by the police on July 25, 2005. Even days after the incident, there were still several workers in the hospital who had suffered head injuries and had fractured limbs.  Most of them were from far-off states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and, in some cases, their family members had undertaken long and expensive journeys to be with them.

 

There were many Honda workers who were looking after their injured colleagues and the delegation’s talks with them revealed some shocking facts.  The need for a union in the factory was felt when the humiliating and insulting behaviour of members of the managements, both Japanese and Indians crossed all limits. Haroshi, who was subsequently sent back to Japan, had actually kicked a worker while another Sikh worker had had his turban removed.  The most shocking fact revealed was that toilets meant for the women employees were often entered by management personnel. Use of abusive and humiliating language was a common factor. Many laws were also infringed upon by the management. For example, there were a large number of temporary and casual workers who were denied permanency; 24 per cent of the workers’ wages were being cut as PF contribution; illegal deductions were made from salaries etc.

 

It was in this context that the workers formed a union in 2005 which was something that the management was not prepared to tolerate. In retaliation, some of the leaders were suspended and when the workers protested, the management locked out the factory illegally towards the end of June. Since then, the workers have been agitating peacefully.

 

On July 25, they walked more than 18 kilometres to hand over a memorandum to the Commissioner and it was then that they had to face the worst kind of police barbarism. They told us that many of their colleagues who were taken to the Sona police station were severely beaten by the police there – and, when the police were exhausted from beating them, they had them beaten by the people working in the thana. They also said that many of the injured workers who were not being properly attended to in the district hospital had gone to private nursing home for treatment – something they could ill afford. Not a single officer from the management had bothered to visit the hospital or do anything to help the injured workers. In fact, the management has withheld the earned wage for the month of June from the workers – condemning them to starvation and indebtedness.

 

In the hospital, we met Pathak, a CITU leader and lawyer, who had been brought there from the Bhondsi jail. He along with Raj Singh, also belonging to CITU, have been charged under Sec. 207 and had been jailed. After the Gurgaon lawyers agitated against this, he was brought to the hospital for treatment because he had been badly injured. He told us that there were many among those in the jail who were suffering from fractures and other injuries. They were not receiving proper treatment because, in any case, there was only one doctor for the entire jail.

 

The delegation met the Commissioner, Avtar Singh. They insisted that he should instruct the Jail Superintendent to send all injured workers to the hospital for treatment immediately and he actually did so, mandating that all such workers reach the hospital the same evening.

 

The delegation also demanded:

(INN)