http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews&id=75764
No steps to protect interests of farm labourers: AIAWU Nagapattinam, Jan 6: Successive governments at the Centre had not taken any steps to enact a law to protect the interest of farm labourers and the wrong policies followed had led to loss of employment for them, the AIAWU (All India Agricultural Workers Association) state unit said today. Speaking at the AIAWU's sixth state conference here, association secretary Hannam Mulla, MP, said that agricultural labourers were mostly Dalits living in rural areas without any comforts and privileges and were given paltry wages. They were also subjected to evils like untouchability and ill treated by landlords, he said. The major problem faced by agricultural labourers in India was that they were not getting legitimate wages for the volume of work done by them. The association, he said, had for long been demanding enactment of a law for uniform wages. He said the Tamil Nadu government was also not giving these workers any benefits like old age pension or accident relief. In a democratic set up, agricultural labourers should rise as one to claim their rights, he added. --- PTI
