 Thank you. I think that what Raminder has started by speaking about the right of workers to live in the city and that is what we will be discussing as well. I mean the first question that comes up is why are we discussing only Mumbai and Delhi. But the fact is that most of these policies actually get made in struggles or as part of policy in Delhi and Bombay and then gets extended in different parts of the country. You know many things that we have been fighting against in Mumbai. We are seeing it being not only promoted but people are also accepting that as good policy because they have not understood all the implications of that policy because we don't share enough of our experiences and particularly with regard to workers housing what the experience that Raminder has placed and this is not that the only experiences that we have in this are only in Mumbai and Delhi but all over the country there are so many different kinds of rich variety of experiences which we really need to discuss with each other. So I am glad we have this session not because it is very much part of the labour movement and I think this also links with the fact that jobs are being lost and the reason for jobs being lost may be many. It is closure, it is the fact that there is mechanization, there is artificial intelligence, there is you know the whole changes in the economy that makes the only jobs available as so menial that many people who have been educated, I mean a worker who is working in a brick kiln wants to educate his or her children in order to become a little better. By the time they do that the jobs at that level have already disappeared and this is happening everywhere. And so if this is going to happen so that we come to this peculiar situation where we have the unions are not just having to fight for wages and emoluments and working conditions but for the rights of workers who are not working and this is become a very important job of trade unions everywhere. So whether you are working or not, you require social protection, you require services, access to basic services, this whether it is like the right to breathe. You have to, if you are living you have to breathe, if you are living you need a house, you need food, you need shelter, you need a sustainable environment in which to live and you need health, education and other kinds of public service and this has to be made available and this I am saying because this is one of the debates that we had when we took up the whole social protection with Baba and others in the working people's charter. When there was a debate why are we not just demanding jobs? Because there is, because if struggles are only in a framework oriented fashion, if you look at struggles only in a framework oriented fashion and not in a constituency oriented fashion what we come to is we have a right to jobs we should get jobs without looking at the fact that okay yes everybody should have jobs but what if you don't get jobs? What are we going to do if we don't have jobs? So this is actually one of the learnings from the Mumbai struggle as well and I think to some extent what Raminder also talked about was that, that we do need to look at the we cannot only demand jobs and minimum wage and wages we do need to demand all the other things that are necessary to sustain life of the workers and their families. Okay the second thing that I want to say is a question of dignity and I think one of the good things that have come out of our today's discussions is how central the issue of dignity is. A worker who has a job, is earning, has a certain dignity. A worker who has lost his or her job or does not manage to get a job there is a loss of dignity and I think one of the first things then we started working with the workers of closed mills was that we don't get married and this is something that we might consider who cares I mean is that the most important thing but it is because nobody will marry your children and so that is that is a loss of dignity which workers who have enjoyed a certain level of respect in society especially in a city like Mumbai which Mumbai it's always been was I don't say always been because it is not any more in my opinion it was an industrial city workers were very much the backbone of the city in fact the role of textile workers in the city has been one of actually building the city they are the first they're not the first migrants the first migrants were perhaps the big lot in the big wave migrants the second big wave of migrants you could say to come and work in the mills nobody was willing to come and work in Mumbai because Mumbai was considered a sickly city where people did not last for more than 10 years before they got malaria and died so so the jobbers went into the villages and you know kind of caught the workers and brought them here houses were provided in order to attract them into the city and they were put up there and then when in 1982 when the big strike happened there were 50 mills employing about 2.5 lakh workers and their families so you have and this area covers 600 acres in the middle of Mumbai city which today is Parail, Lal Bagh etc. where all the big offices are which is prime real estate okay so now to go back to the to an introduction to the textile workers if you may for those who may not know who may not be from Mumbai because Mumbai people know this that textile those were in the trade union movement also know this that textile workers were the first to form a union there were the first industrial workers there were the first to form a union so the first union was actually set up by a social reformer called Lokhande and this was in 1890 and what were the demands a weekly holiday 30 minutes off for lunch and rest after sundown so these were the these were the demands that Lokhande had taken up because of the kind of social reformer these are workers they really we need to do something for workers the other thing that's the first union the first political strike is also attributed about which famously Lenin has also written about the 1908 strike for the release of the who was at that time in jail he was arrested for sedition he was sentenced for six years so the workers went on strike it was a huge spontaneous struggle which was a very violent a lot of people were killed in this because people workers were forced to go back into the factories which they didn't do so 15 people were killed in the course of that struggle this was in 1908 then there were many other firsts I won't go to but one very major battle was the one for Deanna's allowance so the strike for Deanna's allowance was for the first time established the right of workers for more salary based not just on what the owners were willing to pay but according to the rise in prices so although this first was made available to textile workers it was then later you know for all other employees particularly in the formal sector now the only the formal sector gets that but this was one of the things that a strike of the textile workers actually established for all workers many of the strikes and struggles of the textile workers established strikes for other workers as well it was not as if the strikes were only the demands only benefited the textile workers so it was a it was a labor movement of which all workers thought of themselves as a part it was also the place where the first biggest left union where Dange was the accepted leader of the textile workers of Mumbai it was 1928 who was talking about 1931 the discussion on the demands that was actually a response in 1929 strike which was organized by the first big strike that was led by the textile workers union and the textile workers and the leaders of the textile workers were then implicated in conspiracy cases against the British state because the textile workers were actively involved in the struggle for independence they were later actively involved for the in the formation of say it the Maharashtra where the Huthatma Chowk where now the Huthatma Chowk stands where a large number of them were also textile workers every single struggle in the city was was to a large extent power you could say by the by the participation of textile workers so when the textile mills went started to close the the support for the textile workers did not come only from the people living in that area called Girangam where the 15 mills are but the entire city also was very sympathetic to the struggle the struggle started soon after the text the big textile strike now the big textile strike 1982 strike which you all know about which is Nagina's book of the for the longest strike etc but there is also misconception that that was a reason why the textile mills started to close but that is not true it is not because of the textile strike the textile mills started to close there was already a crisis textile sickness was spreading all over the lack of a proper textile policy the lack of any kind of interest in protecting what was a totally indigenous industry which should have been done but was not done it was disintegrating but in the midst of that to conduct a strike and not take it back was a huge tactical error on the part of Tatta Samant that is a fact and because of that it broke the back of the textile workers union and that was all they had you see workers have only their union to depend they only have organization to depend to break the back of the union whatever other framework ideological positions that may be taken that doesn't help again I want to be I wish to point out and this is not something that we normally say openly but it is a fact that the reason why that the salmon did not take the strike back was because of certain a left union which put huge pressure which is working actively with that the salmon which I will say the name but I will I will deny that I said it after I leave this room it was Rameek which was involved with so they actually put huge pressure on that salmon that this is going to be the beginning of a revolution because the workers who are now lost their jobs will go back to their villages and from the villages the revolution will begin but there was unfortunately nothing of that sort happened but untold misery of a whole community because you can imagine that over 600 acres of land 13 people would be living there there was nobody I remember one worker telling me he it's true you know they would collect old newspaper to boil water in order to make tea to drink those so people had sold everything in the house including the bartender and there are many stories of what happened during that time I'm not going into that most workers also don't talk about that very much because it's considered really a black chapter in the life of the textile workers but you could not even go next door and borrow two rupees because everyone in the locality was broke nobody had money everybody was starving nobody could go to the doctor the city tried very hard to support and I must say that this is not this is those who have been around those who are from Mumbai they know this that people collected grains they collected money that they did everything they could to support the workers but it was not possible to do this over a year and the strike broke and the they went back humiliated they went back with their heads down and that was what was unforgivable because you cannot stand on an ideological point that we will never give in because even the other day we had an argument about this that but the point is we never took back the strike I mean but you okay that was very good for your ego but it was very bad for the textile workers what needed to be done at that time is the story of the textile workers and the textile workers struggle after that which Dutta and I have been associated with Dutta has been the leader of that struggle it starts after that most people will say but actually a news history started after that where mill workers started a struggle for survival a new kind of struggle which they said we are not going to give up and just die we are not going to just lie down and give up we are going to continue the fight and that's where the work and most of that I'm going to leave to the top to talk about I'm just going to say a few things about what actually so he doesn't have to go into that the hasn't been very well so I'm just going to so I'm going to just talk about what we got so yeah so textile once the textile mill started to close what textile owners wanted to was to sell land so the government was under pressure but the fact is that all this land almost 600 acres of land was actually given to the textile owners in order to run mills many of them are on hundred year leases so now how the government wants to give them the permission but they know that there's going to be a huge outcry because workers are putting pressure from one side so what they did at that time when the struggle started they said in order to revive the mills only in order to revive the mills the owners will get permission to sell the land owners are very happy and the workers of the band car bond mills are also happy because they're getting the mills opened and but what happened was that was only a very it was a very short time workers got their dues sure workers got their dues 20,000 workers of 10 mills which were closed which were closed which did not open after the strike some of them some opened and then closed those mills which is where the struggle began the band car band Guinea struggle that we won but we lost because afterwards what happened was that the closure started in real earnest the owner started to put pressure saying that we want a complete permission to sell land because at that time what was called the okay now the development control regulations are what what governs the sale of land development of land in Mumbai so under that so section 58 deals with cotton textile mills now it was not allowed to sell the cotton textile mills was not allowed they amended it so that it can be sold so then they introduced what's the famous one-third formula and I wouldn't be surprised if very soon this one-third formula also starts becoming in a few cities elsewhere where they would share you know notes on how to actually give up land which would belong to the city but this this land should actually have reverted to the city it's least land should have reverted to the city which they didn't want to do and in fact I must say that you were talking about VP Singh VP Singh had come to Mumbai and he told us a very important point and I think that was a very very significant point that he made which gave us the rationale for the fight that we conducted after the fight until then was open the mills give the jobs back this was again the very revolutionary left also which was in the textile industry we're also holding on to that the fact is mills were closing VP Singh said see the mill and the mill land that was given to them at that time on 1 rupee per square meter 2 rupees per square meter if now it has increased in value how has the mill owner contributed to that value it is not something that has been contributed by the mill owner why should that accrue only to the owner it should accrue to everybody and particularly it should accrue to the workers both workers and mill owners have been working on that in that land so make sure that it that the owners also have a share we took this up and we said that share of land should also be we did not take it up as a main demand because at that time and we started talking about land immediately of course there was a backlash saying that if you talk about land you are giving up your demand to open the mills so the total demand was still what was being held on to by my many of the unions in fact when we started talking to the other unions they said see we agree the other textile union said we agree but we cannot take this position because we will be accused of giving up the battle for the opening of the mills so they wouldn't agree but we did we took the step of demanding that land should accrue to workers as well that demand was finally agreed to the night the one-third formula was then amended later one-third formula meant one-third to the owners one-third to the city one third for public housing okay this was the one-third formula now it looks as if this land has been taken away from mill owners no that land was then turned into what's called transferable land rights in a TDR transfer of development rights this could be taken and piled on other because there's no land no it could be piled on as FSI on other buildings that were that were being built by the mill owner developers so no loss was but they could not build the entire thing in that same because each mill is six acres seven acres eight acres 15 acres each mill so this was the one-third formula but so after that in the 19th as the struggle progressed the 2001 amendment there was an amendment in 2001 yes so I will take only another five minutes I won't even take ten minutes yeah so in response to the struggle then that was the time when Bilas Rao Deshmukh was the chief minister very straight and honest gentleman he also had a very straight and honest secretary his name was Ramana Tiwari you know him of Aadarsh fame so he he was the one who actually took up this mill and he said so then suddenly we got the mill the government called the mill workers and said we are now going to give you all your demands we are accepting what are the demands one mill Chol tenants will be protected that was one because by then we had also also created a what shall I say an organization of the mill Chol tenants because they were also going to be evicted right so the mill Chol tenants cannot be evicted to owners who want to close or sell land had to deposit the entire money that was due to the workers in an escrow account which was monitored by a monitoring committee it was done also third children of textile workers are given first lien on any commercial enterprise on textile mill these laws are still in place this is the third fourth 50% of the one third that has been given for public housing will be for workers housing and 1.5 all the workers who are losing their jobs will be provided houses we accepted this and we started pressing for it this also created a schism in the textile workers the one union which was all the other unions came together but the one union which did not agree with this who said that it is a not a good thing and who then demanded free housing instead about which Shweta will talk about afterwards okay this is all that I am going to say so I just want to say one more thing actually the High Court and Supreme Court the the this second thing that I told you all these things that we got from the government had one small amendment that was put in by Ramanan Tiwari who said this will apply only to the land that is open space inside the mill it was a clarification it was very famous in all the Marathi press the clarification this was an interpretation of the law by Ramanan Tiwari which completely cut down from if you took one third of 600 acres and divided that hundred acres should have come to the textile workers 200 acres totally should have gone for public housing and 200 acres should have come to the city to create green lungs right so this was stuck down because of this interpretation against which civil society including environmentally groups in Mumbai supported by workers and all kinds of civil society groups went to court while the case was in High Court Mr. Arun Jaitley Mr. Solisaur Abji Mr. Abhishek Singhvi all three were hired by the mill owners they went to Supreme Court and said we do not trust the High Court because the High Court will probably support the civil society of Mumbai take the case away from them and bring it to Supreme Court the Supreme Court said it is not possible under law don't worry let them finish they did that let them finish means the High Court gave an order in favor of the city it immediately went to Supreme Court and it was struck down because they said that you cannot take away land of the mill owners they did not bother to look at the fact that this land was not really mill owners it's leased land they did not go into any of those details it was gone that case okay that's just one of the things because just to show how fair are Supreme Court is because it's nowadays judicial activism and Supreme Court become very hero like in everybody's eyes but okay so now the workers housing the workers have got a part of the land so to date the houses that have been built on mill lands 6948 houses in the first phase have been built and distributed second phase 2634 apartments the price is the price there is a price to this it is not free 7.5 lakhs for the work the have to be but the loans were provided by government and at a very small interest rate they had to give the money back but the cost of that unfortunately the market again defeats us because the market rate of those properties are over 60 lakhs so the temptation to sell is very high but anyway so in the suburbs the area is a little bigger there are 2,500 houses built in all anyway totally about 20,000 houses are been built but the total number of workers who have filled the forms is 1.5 lakhs the the current government we have gone through five governments so far now the Fadnavis government they have said that they are still looking at land that that process is still continuing the struggle continues all I want to say at the end is the struggle of the textile workers is still continuing and that is the important thing and it is not a struggle of a union anymore it is like a social movement it's like a people's movement and that struggle has been conducted not just by workers but also by a large number of people city activists urban activists who have also been part of this struggle so it's a complex struggle I have not been able to encapsulate all the issues that are part of this but I will leave it to Dutta since we are doing this session together to talk about the struggle per se Dutta