Deepening Crisis in Jute Industry

Nityananda Ghosh

The Jute Industry of West Bengal is facing survival crisis. It is a matter of great concern to thousands of workers and their families. Lock-out in this labour-intensive industry after tea in Bengal is seasonal and phenomenal as well. In truth the fate of 2.5 lakh labourers and 40 lakh peasants associated with jute industry is hanging in balance because of apathy of the Centre. The Government of India (GOI) has reduced the quota to purchase jute products, mainly gunny bags, from the jute mills, while replacing jute bags with plastic bags. Gunny bags are generally used for packaging sugar, rice, flour, potato etc. Jute is also an export-oriented industry but, of late, export of jute goods has been totally stopped. Jute bags have a good domestic market but synthetic products are increasingly replacing them.

In South-East Asia Bangladesh jute materials have better demand because of their quality. West Bengal’s jute is of inferior quality but the jute authorities have no plan to improve jute cultivation. Then jute barons do not spend a single paisa in research and development.

There are 73 composite jute mills in Bengal. It is difficult to locate owners as in most cases they lease out mills to contractors. In reality these owners were originally jute traders under British owners; they lack industrial and entrepreneurial culture. Surprisingly, even the state government owned Bharat Jute Process is also run by a contractor. Previously Food Corporation of India was the largest buyer of gunny bags as per quota sanctioned by the Ministry of Commerce, GOI but at present quota system has virtually been abolished. Many believe it is a political vendetta against the ruling dispensation of Bengal as they are opposed to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre.

Being environment friendly jute products have tremendous demand in international market. But the persons in authority in Delhi are more interested in wooing plastic lobby that has virtually monopolised packaging in domestic market. Use of gunny bags has been mandatory since 1987 when packaging act was introduced. But the Act lost its relevance with passage of time due to indifference of the Union Government. At present Government has ordered compulsory use of gunny bags for packaging food grains, 20 percent for sugar but that order is also violated. As a result during 2024-25 financial year demand for gunny bags has been diminished by 30 percent.

Plight of jute growers defy description. They are worst sufferers in jute chain as they never get remunerative prices, thanks to market manipulators. Jute growers don’t get support from any quarters—Indian Jute Mills Association, respective governments, state or central. As a result peasants, mainly small peasants, finding jute cultivation uneconomical are losing interest in growing jute.

Then jute bailers, who purchase raw jute and supply it to mills, clandestinely import cheap raw jute from Bangladesh, forcing West Bengal producers to resort to distress sales. Well, Bangladesh growers are better placed in the sense that they get subsidy and incentives from their government. They get 9-10 percent incentive for food grade packaging materials. For one thing quality of Bangladesh jute is high. Also, they have better technique for retting in running water with complete submergence. But In West Bengal retting is done in ponds or shallow water bodies without complete submergence and it hampers quality. Then the process of stripping fibre which is known as “beat-break-jerk” method is done scientifically in Bangladesh whereas in West Bengal Government doesn’t take any initiative to improve jute quality. Poor peasants, who have no modern scientific knowledge, do what they have been doing traditionally for decades without breaking the status quo.

Jute is a labour-intensive industry but given the slow growth rate of overall GDP the possibility of more job creation in this age-old industry looks bleak. Mill owners or lease-holders no longer recruit permanent workers. Bhagawalas or time-sharing employees [three hours or five hours a day] do the job with back-breaking work-load. They have ‘zero number’. It means they are not officially enlisted and they can be thrown out anytime. Tragically a section of TU leadership is in league with the unscrupulous employers to continue this unfair labour practice. Then there are badli, temporary and contract labourers who don’t have any legal rights. Nor do they get officially recognised minimum statutory wages.

Jute industry is traditionally bound by tripartite agreement in industrial relations. The last tripartite agreement was signed on January 3, 2024. The parties were 23 Trade Unions, IJMA [Indian Jute Mills Association] and Labour Department, Govt. of West Bengal. As per the agreement workers engaged in service for 15 years will be treated as ‘special badli’ while those with 20 years of continued service to their credit will be treated as permanent. In addition they were given some fringe benefits. The industry employs a large number of women workers. Their problems were not addressed. They are denied maternity benefit, PF, gratuity, separate toilet and washrooms. The union leaders failed to raise these issues affecting women labourers for decades.

Naba Dutta, General Secretary of Nagarik Mancha, a Kolkata-based NGO, said ‘violation of tripartite agreement’ is frequent. According to him, right now at least 20 mills refuse to honour their own agreement, denying workers their legitimate dues. And the government has failed to punish those erring employers. These days TU movement is very weak, in most cases they are busy to somehow maintain the status quo. Mr Dutta also alleges that local level union leaders are corrupt. As a result workers are in a helpless situation. Then mill owners are running projects in the name of Deendayal Upadhyay, a prominent leader of BJP of yester years, to siphon funds granted by the central government. Workers do hardly get any benefit from these projects though the employers get money for their welfare.

Jute barons allegedly donate liberally to political parties. It’s a known fact. And nobody bothers about it. Ruling parties and central trade unions are said to be main beneficiaries. The yearly turn-over in jute mills is about 2 lakh crore rupees and 10 percent of this sum is supposed to go to the coffers of political parties.

Jute Moll owners are notorious in defaulting in making payments to PF and ESI. Then most workers don’t get gratuity after retirement. They are exempted from GST and excise duty and yet they deprive workers of their legitimate dues. Ironically the state government never blacklisted them as defaulters.

In a sense jute mill owners who were originally traders are feudal in outlook. They don’t modernise machines. Instead they have increased workload on workers by assigning 4 looms to one person while previously it was one loom per one person. The owners ignore mandatory obligations like regular check-up of workers to compile Body Mass Index (BMI).

There is no exact data regarding women workers in the industry. According to Nagarik Mancha about 25 thousand women are toiling in the industry. The retirement age of women workers in jute is 55 while it is 58 for male workers. Women workers frequently face sexual harassment. Jute industry is a major source of generating black money. Trick lies in down-grading jute quality. Owners are not interested in modernising the industry. Nor do they think of improving quality of jute in the competitive market. They are slowly ruining this labour-intensive industry of Bengal.

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 15 - 18, Oct 5 - Nov 2, 2024