No work due to rains, need govt help: Rubber plantation workers

Rainfall has left scores of workers, who rely on rubber plantations for an earning, jobless and current situation tends to be difficult to find alternative work, say sources associated with the industry.

V. Nanukuttan, a rubber plantation worker from Thirunanthikarai, said on an average, wages of about Rs 650 could be earned after working six to seven hours a day. But there has been no work over the last two months as rains pounded the rubber plantation sites. Earlier, employers used to give Rs 1,000 a week to every worker for non-working days during the rainy season to meet living expenses. But, nowadays, employers are not coming forward to help the workers in distress. Further, he said, workers like him were eyeing for the 100-day rural job guarantee programme, but it is yet to be implemented in this town panchayat.

Velappan, another worker from Thuckalay, said the state government should look into this serious problem and extend rain period relief like being done for fishers during annual ban period. It’s also unfair that the Arasu Rubber Corporation covering five divisions, which was earlier providing jobs to nearly 280 Kani tribes, of late, had been hiring workers on a contractual basis, he added.

According to M Valsakumar, district general secretary, Estate Workers Union, CITU, many plantation workers have managed to survive living solely relying on ration rice. Unlike other districts, Kanniyakumari experiences rainfall during both southwest and northeast monsoons. Around 1,500 workers in the rubber corporation and 25,000 in private plantations rely on tapping and allied works in the district and Padmanabhapuram has nearly 75 pc of the plantations.

A. Raju, a 63-year-old worker from Thirunanthikarai, who has been rendered jobless during this season, said he could not even avail old age pension benefits from the government. The sexagenarian said he applied for availing the pension before Thumbode VAO after he turned 61.