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Gandhi Labour Foundation(GLF) with its well-recognised
record of service to the working people of
the country was not built in a day. Years of
toil, of experimentation and research lie
behind the edifice that stands today near
the famous sea beach of Puri. Within the
four walls of this Foundation work goes on
round the year, round the clock to educate
the working people of the country, men and
women, with a view not only to improve their
skills, impart knowledge of their rights and
duties but also to make them better
workers, better citizens and better human
beings.
To understand
the present it is necessary to look into the
past. The lessons of history enable us to
avoid the pitfalls, overcome the obstacles
and face the challenges that life throws up
for any organization. So let us go back to
the beginnings.
By the early
sixties of the last century the Indian
National Mineworkers’ Federation (INMF) had
emerged as a powerful organization and Shri
Kanti Mehta as General Secretary of the INMF
along with a number of like minded leaders
began exploring the possibility of setting
up an Institution for workers’ education.
The period between 1977-79 saw a tremendous
amount of spade work being done, studying
various aspects of the problem of
implementing a programme of workers
education. Under the guidance of senior
leaders of INMF – Shri Kanti Mehta and the
late Shri S. Dasgupta it was decided to
undertake an in-depth survey in various
regions of the existing situation, the level
of education and the felt needs of the
various unions and their members. Shri B.K.
Das, who is currently the Director of IMME
and GLF Trustee-Secretary was entrusted
with this task and was ably supported in
this task by the late Shri Gokulanand Singh
of Dhanbad in Bihar (now Jharkhand) and Late Shri
G.C. Bhattacharya of Chandametta in Madhya
Pradesh.
The
mine-to-mine survey carried out patiently
over a period of one year all confirmed the
need for a platform where the workers could
come together to learn and share a
consciousness of their entity as workers
rather than be divided by different
political ideologies and by sectarian and
selfish trends. The idea of taking up
workers education seriously took root.
Much of the
contribution during the spade-work period
came from sources within INMF that provided
the minimal necessary back up as well as the
skeleton staff needed for the project to
take off. Worker-educators were identified
and a number of educational programmes
conducted during this period on an
experimental basis. The positive impact of
this activity on the unions ensured that the
idea of setting up the planned Institute
would be widely supported.
After nearly
sixteen years of collective and sustained
effort the Institute finally took shape. It
was Late Kanti Mehta and his colleagues in
the personalities of Late S. Das Gupta, Late
Bindeswari Dubey, Late B. K. Mahanti, Late
Basudev Chowdhury, Late S. Narayan Reddy,
Late Gopeswar, Late N.K. Bhatt and the
present IMME Director, Shri B.K. Das who
took the lead in promoting and establishing
the Institute for Miners and Metalworkers
Education(IMME) and gave it shape as a
specialized agency for workers education,
research and documentation on industrial
relations and labour related problems,
publication of journals and books on issues
relevant to its objectives. Born on April 4
1979, it was finally registered on April 20
the same year under the West Bengal
Societies’ Registration Act. One cannot omit
the contribution of Srimati Nihar Mehta in
the development of IMME. A trade unionist
herself she had understood long before that
women had been marginalized within the trade
union movement as in other spheres. A major
contribution of Nihardi as she is
affectionately called by the staff and
workers has been to introduce women’s
empowerment as one of the thrust areas of
the Institute and to make the issue of the
uplift of women as an integral part of the
education.
As the
activities of IMME expanded and the
possibility of drawing workers of other
industries the need was felt of an Institute
that was not restricted to any one industry
or any one trade union organization. Thus
the promotion of Gandhi Labour Foundation (GLF)
by the IMME in 1999. The IMME’s Puri Center
was thus transformed into the Gandhi Labour
Foundation, the doors of which are open to
all workers irrespective of trade union or
political affiliation and even to the
unorganized workers. With the establishment
of the Gandhi Labour Foundation on the 16th
of June 1999 as a Trust under the Indian
Trust Act of 1882, a new chapter started in
the history of workers education movement.
Building upon
the work already done by IMME, GLF adopts a
holistic approach towards the integrated
development of workers. Through its
educational programmes, its research and its
publications it seeks to realize its aim of
raising the level of workers technically,
intellectually and morally with its motto –
a better worker, a better citizen, a better
human being.
The
initiative for the transformation naturally
came from Late Kanti Mehta. Other members of
the Trust include among others Late Nihar
Mehta who is the Treasurer and Shri B. K.
Das the Trustee-Secretary. In keeping with
its objective of broadening the scope of its
activities GLF in addition to its
continuing educational programmes has
started programmes for women to help them to
understand their rights and to further the
cause of women’s empowerment.
Perhaps even
more important is the thrust towards
organizing the unorganized especially those
in the rural sector. An organization that
seeks its inspiration from the Mahatma very
naturally keeps his talisman in mind when
taking any major decision. Gandhiji’s
talisman, as is well known was: When in
doubt recall the face of the poorest and the
most helpless man who you may have seen and
ask yourself if the step you contemplate is
going to be of any use to him. Will it be
able to gain anything by it? Will it restore
to him a control over his own life and
destiny. In other words will it lead to
Swaraj or self-rule for the starved millions
of our countrymen?
Late
Kanti Mehta felt that the organized workers
had through years of struggle been able to
raise themselves to a level where they enjoy
a reasonably good standard of living. On the
other hand the gap between them and the mass
of the unorganized especially in the rural
sector has widened considerably. He
therefore felt that the main thrust should
now be on these countless millions. To
organize them so that they are able to fight
for their rights and to raise their level of
consciousness through education and other
means of communication has now become an
important area of concern for GLF. To ensure
that this task is carried on effectively the
GLF has taken over the reigns of the Rural
Workers’ Trust (RWT) set up in 1985, which
has launched the National Campaign Committee
for Rural Workers (NCCRW).
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