Vellore: Ambur, Vaniyambadi and Ranipet form the leather hub of Tamil Nadu, accounting for 30% of the country's leather exports but its workers are still waiting for higher wages and healthcare benefits on par with global standards.
These workers, who account for about 1.3 lakh votes, are not, however, considered a valuable votebank by parties as they are scattered and divided along religious and caste lines. About 70% of the 1.3 lakh leather workers in the three towns are women. About 40,000 workers are employed in tanneries and 90,000 in footwear and leather product units.
Most of them have a high school education and are not politically aware or active. This lack of unity is what prevents them from consolidating their votes and pushing parties and the industry to improve their conditions of work.
Wages are low despite the district earning foreign exchange of 5,000 crore to 6,000 crore a year. "We are manufacture ISO-standard leather products but the wages do not reflect our skills or the quality of our work," said Sundar, general secretary of North Arcot District Tannery Workers Union, who is the BSP candidate in Ambur.
A leather worker with 20 years' experience is paid about 8,500 a month. Freshers are paid less than 120 a day, which means they makes about 3,600 a month. This is despite the fact that the government has fixed the minimum wage at 10,000 a month for them. Unsafe work environment and lack of health cover and job security are other problems.
"No political party has heeded our plight and raised its voice to better our living conditions," said a woman worker. The workers are neither interested in politics nor affiliated to any party. "We spend most of the day at work and return home late. We don't have time to worry about who rules the state," said Udhaya Babu, a technician in a leather company in Ambur.
The workers have been demanding an Employee's State Insurance (ESI) hospital in Ambur, which only has an ill-equipped dispensary. Workers said they are forced to remove hazardous effluents manually, which affects their health.
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