Labourers attached to the procurement centres run by the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation have been drawing a poor wage at the rate of Rs.1.39 paise per bag they handle. To earn this wage, they have to unload bags from the farmer’s vehicle, weigh them, winnow the produce, and re-weigh it before packaging and arranging in a row at the procurement centre.
“I joined the corporation as a load man when the wage was just 0.20 paise. The only solace for me was that the corporation did not use the winnowing machines then,” say a cross-section of labourers at the Direct Paddy Procurement Centre at Tiruthuraipoondi in Tiruvarur district, where the final-leg of ‘kuruvai’ procurement was drawing to a close.
They said that the corporation should come forward to at least issue identity card so that they could be classified as unorganised labourers to be eligible for some relief from the welfare board of the Labour Department. They confessed that this poor wage forced them to get ‘quick money’ from farmers who sell paddy at the procurement centre, fixing the rate depending on the number of bags brought from each farmer. Many loaders had died without enjoying any welfare measure, they said.
Corporation officials conceded that the wage was ‘very poor’ and it time the higher authorities took a decision on increasing the wages, compared to the hard labour involved in the process.
A loader can handle a maximum of 100 bags a day and the wages from the corporation was around Rs. 132. The labourers were eligible for an ex-gratia of Rs. 1,500 during the Deepavali festival. The wordy duel, at times, between farmers and the labourers played spoilsport at the procurement centres.
