Textile mill workers in India set to get free houses

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government will give over 10,000 free houses to mill workers before Diwali, Minister of State for Urban Development Bhaskar Jadhav told the legislative assembly Tuesday.

The process of distribution of houses will begin on August 15, Independence Day, and will benefit 10,156 workers, he said.

The houses are likely to be allotted through a lottery system. Textile mill workers have welcomed this allotment "though the government had made a commitment to provide 68,000 houses to mill workers," Datta Iswalkar, Secretary, Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti (GKSS), an organisation representing the struggle of mill workers, told Gulf News.

"We want to know when the rest of the houses promised to us will be given. However, we are happy some beginning has been made."

The housing being built by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority is located in 10 to 12 different locations in central Mumbai, from Byculla to Parel, where the defunct mills are located.

There are around 250,000 mill workers in Mumbai, most of them now living in central Mumbai, once the centre of a booming textile industry.

In the long-drawn mill strike of 1982, thousands lost their jobs and since then have been living in pathetic conditions by doing petty jobs.

The struggle to get their dues from the government has been going on for the last 10 years, says Iswalkar.

His colleague and a member of the GKSS, Neera Adarkar, also an architect, emphasises that the mill workers "have a right to the land on which they have toiled. It is because of them that this city was built around this circle."

Initially, the demand was for land but now it seems political parties want to cash in by providing free houses, she says.

Government donation

Mumbai has 600 acres of mill land which was originally given by the government to the mill owners to develop the industry.

Therefore, those fighting for the workers say the land should be utilised for the benefit of workers and textile mills.

Instead, according to GKSS, "mill land has been sold and developed in the name of revival and modernisation and mill owners have been pocketing the proceeds without doing either."