Shramjeevi Sanghatana

In 1982 Vidhayak Sansad registered a separate organization under the Trade Union Act called Shramjeevi Sanghatana. Its purpose was to assist bonded laborers in struggling for their rights. Today the Shramjeevi Sanghatana has expanded into a formidable grassroots trade union with 30,000 members in three districts of Maharashtra. The union takes up a variety of issues affecting the rural poor, including land rights, wages for agricultural laborers, conditions of public health and education facilities, corruption in the disbursement of public services, and violence against women and other exploited groups. The tools of struggle employed by the union range from consultation and negotiation with concerned parties, to marches, strikes, and other forms of vigorous protest. The union places a strong emphasis on non-violent struggle.

Shramjeevi Sanghatana employs a bottom-up approach, organizing from village to village, while also maintaining close ties with the media and civil society. This translates into broad public support for its campaigns, much beyond its membership base. It has won numerous struggles from the village to the state level in upholding the rights of the rural poor.

Vidhayak Sansad and Shramjeevi Sanghatna work closely together to meet the dual challenges of underdevelopment and social injustice. VS confers regularly with Shramjeevi Sanghatna’s grassroots leadership to determine how its development programs may best address problems faced by the rural poor. Shramjeevi Sanghatna members in turn receive human rights and organizing training through Vidhayak Sansad’s training programs. The sister organizations alert each other when issues arise falling within their respective areas of expertise.

Shramjeevi Sanghatna’s organizational structure ensures strong participation from its members at the grassroots level. Village committees are the backbone of the union. They meet once a week for the assessment of local needs, problem, and achievements. Currently there are 564 Shramjeevi Sanghatana villages committees. When issues arise at the village level that cannot be solved locally, the matter is referred through two representatives, one of whom should be female, to the zone committee. This committee meets once every month and works to resolve issues affecting individual villages.

Block executive committees represent two to five zone committees. This committee elects its own members and is headed by the block secretary, a full-time staff position within the union. All elected members or office holders must be members of their local village committee. The block executive committee meets once every month to review the needs, problems, and achievements at the zone and village levels, but it does not take independent decisions or institute policy at any level within the block. The combined members of the village committees, zone committees, and executive committees of each block constitute a block assembly, which makes all block-level planning and policy decisions. It meets every three months and elects the block president and block secretary, who is the block’s chief union organizer. Major block assembly decisions must be ratified by the general assembly.

The union’s general executive committee presides over all blocks. It consists of voting members, secretaries & chairpersons from each bloc, and elects its own general secretary, president, vice president, chairperson, and treasurer. This body meets once every month to make general planning and policy decisions, assess progress reports from each block, and plan campaigns. It appoints the union’s general executive officers and office staff.

The highest authority in the union is the general assembly, which is open to all Shramjeevi Sanghatana members at any level of the organization. The general assembly meets once a year to approve the annual accounts, review the annual report presented by the general executive, elect the general staff and other office holders, and to ratify important decisions taken at lower levels. The general assembly is empowered to pass resolutions for changes in the constitution or general policies of the Sanghatana.

The Shramjeevi Sanghatana continues taking up matters of social and economic justice at every level in Maharashtra. Beyond aiding in individual cases of corruption and exploitation, the union is currently engaged in an active struggle to stop the forcible eviction of tribals from forestland and secure their land rights. 7,000 tribal families have secured the rights to their forest plots through this struggle.