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Striking employees sell books in Kerala

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

Over 300 employees belonging to six autonomous organisations - all attached to the government of Kerala's cultural department - have struck work since November 26 to protest against the government's failure to grant them pension benefits.

And it's a novel way that they have adopted to lodge their protest. The striking employees have set up stalls all over Thiruvananthapuram where they are selling books published by the publications department of the state government!

The employees, who have sat on a dharna outside the state secretariat since the first day of the strike, took up the sale of books yesterday in an attempt to intensify their stir.

But how is selling books going to help their cause?

A senior employee of one of the organisations involved in the agitation said since their work relates to books and cultural activities, they thought it was a good way to create awareness about their problems. ''People who buy books from us have a word or two of sympathy for us... it's a great way to communicate,'' he said.

The strike christened 'buy a book' was inaugurated by noted critic Prof. Hridayakumari who sold the first copy to poet Lalitha Lenin on the M G Road. Kadammanitta Ramakrishnan, a member of the legislative assembly, a well-known poet and president of the Kerala Library Council, was present on the occasion.

Over half of the 200 books put up for sale on the first day were sold within an hour. The striking employees say the sales would pick up as the strike progresses.

For the publications department strike has come as a godsend. Most of the books on sale were gathering dust all these years in its various offices.

The six organisations involved in the strike are: Kerala Language Institute, Institute of Encylopaedic Publications, Kerala Sahitya Academi, Institute for Children's Literature, Sangeetha Nataka Academy and Lalitha Kala Academy.

V Padamanabhan, convenor of the Joint Action Council, told rediff.com that the government's argument is that the striking employees being members of autonomous bodies, the rules and regulations that govern government employees do not apply to them.

Though some rethinking took place in 1980, and the government agreed in principal to extend pension benefits to all 300 employees of these organisations, the file since has got caught in red tape. "It (the file) has been getting fatter and fatter moving from one department to the other in the secretariat. By now it has added over 3,000 pages to it," said Padmanabhan.

Subsequent governments too made several promises in this regard on the floor of the assembly. Once the assurance committee of the assembly rapped various political dispensations that came to power after 1980 for their failure to keep the promise. Following this a budget allocation of Rs1 million was made. But the matter never moved ahead after that.

The Action Council said the decision to launch the strike was taken after the employees lost all hope of a positive action from the government.

Dr Rajalakshmi, a leader of the Action Council, said many of the employees had died without seeing their pension coming through.

Kadammanitta Ramakrishnan feels it is not the availability of funds that deters the government from sanctioning the pension, since the total funds required are less than Rs 5 million. ''It's the red tape that is keeping the benefits from reaching the striking employees. And that's unforgivable,'' he said.

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