Updates: Housekeeping Staff - Provident Funds and State Insurance

Over the last few weeks, YATN members have been involved in surveying the housekeeping staff of the Academic blocks. The purpose of this exercise was to collect raw data about their wages, EPF and ESI status. We were also trying to ascertain how many of the staff had children who required academic support.

This data has now been collected and some basic concerns have been identified:

1. Many of the staff have never read their contract details.

2. Most do not have access to any document that can act as proof for their PF and SI (Provident fund, State Insurance)

3. There is a significant discrepancy in wages between the staff of AB2 and AB1.

We will update this post with the data shortly. There are other issues as well, however these are not evident from the data (hearsay only). The one condition that seems most serious out of these is:

1. There appears to be a culture of firing and re-hiring workers, in order to make them ineligible for bonuses.

In order to work towards fixing said issues, we are holding a meeting this Saturday (29/10/16) to discuss the roadmap forward. 

Meeting details:

Venue: LHC Cafeteria

Time: 11 am

All are welcome.

We are very glad to say that the SRC will be in attendance at this meeting. It is good to know that our elected representatives are here for the community beyond the students as well.

Alumni fundraising

Great news! The IISER alumni community continues to contribute to YATN. Attached below is a mail from Mayank Chugh - about a fundraising event conducted in his institute to support YATN.

Dear Y.A.T.N. and associated members,

Greetings from old, pretty, crooked, and charming university town of Tübingen, Germany!

Some of you know that I tried supporting the activities of Y.A.T.N. here in Tübingen recently and those who are not aware of any such thing, here’s the deal: I organised a fund raising event for Y.A.T.N. along with two friends of mine, Christine Kiefer and Avin Ramaiya last month (May 14, 2016.  Firstly, I would like to thank you for coordinating with me over the web to provide me all the information that I needed for the event. Secondly, I am delighted to tell you that the fund raising event had been a massive success! We managed to raise an amount of 800 Euro/60,000 INR.

Many congratulations!

Now let me tell you the underlying motivation and summarize the whole fund raising event.

Motivation:
Last year I was sitting with Christine Kiefer (one of the organisers; she is German by nationality) and we were discussing the way we have been raised in our respective countries. What stood striking out of our conversation was, the kind of education system that are present in two countries. In short, I described her how many under privileged children just do not get to see schools in their lifetime. I briefed her about our Y.A.T.N. group which was started by our seniors and my on-off involvement in it. We instantly came up with an idea of organising a fund raising event for Y.A.T.N.

Sometime during the beginning of this year, we sat down and tried to figure out a place and scale of the event. I went three rounds of presentation about Y.A.T.N. and discussions and convincing people who could provide us potential place for the event for free (Of course, I cannot rent a place here just like that and my institute does not work that flexibly as IISER M). Finally, we found a prospective place and we turned this event into a big open Indian charity party to the whole city.

Fund Raising Even/Indian Party:

The Indian party had various attractions. They are as follows:
1. Talk and discussion about the Y.A.T.N.
2. Cultural Program (Bharatanatyam dance performance, Rabindra Sangeet, and Gazals)
3. Bollywood-Electro Fusion DJ.
4. Indian Henna Tattoo counter.
5. Indian food and drinks.
6. Donation box.
As I mentioned, the party was open to the whole city without any entry ticket and more than 200 people showed up. It was crazy! Believe me, when I say this because it is not India here. We got a lot of appreciation from everyone because it was a great international crowd under one roof.

We primarily raised the funds via selling food and drinks that we prepared ourselves. We prepared a variety of food such as mix pakora, papadam, samosa, chutni, rice, channa masala. We prepared and sold mango-flavoured lassi as the prime drink.

It is unbelievable that 15 unknown people approached up after the party notice and volunteered for help in any possible chores.

A big thanks goes to the DJ, a friend of friend, who volunteered to DJ the whole night for us and he came all the way down to Tübingen from Dresden.

Once again, a big thanks to you guys for helping me out here.

Once again, congratulations!

Y.A.T.N. volunteers have been doing a commendable job. It is great that you guys have started new missions and have broken the dormancy of Y.A.T.N. blog. I would still request you to document everything and keep sharing information such as photos of the students who are attending school this year and other activities.

It was our pleasure and honour to organise this event for Y.A.T.N. and we are happy to support Y.A.T.N. 

Best Regards,
Mayank, Christine and Avin

Pics from the event:

Humans of IISER Mohali

As this is written, we are still fighting a long-drawn skirmish with the administration to reinstate the housekeeping staff we believe were unjustly fired. (Read about it here)

In our most recent meeting, as our able generals discussed our plans for the near future - a tangent sprang up. The idea was, or is a simple one. It is to show our appreciation for the housekeeping staff, in our effort to add depth to our efforts to integrate them with the IISER community. To do this, we are going to start by trying and saying thank you. At the convocation ceremony - on 24th of May, we will have a large collage made of photos of all the non-academic staff of IISER (or as many as possible) along with a joint chart for students to write thank-you notes.

We are also making a page - Humans of IISER Mohali (cliched, eh? :p) where we will upload all of these. Go over, give the page some love.

As we create this, we don't really know where it is going to go. It could become multiple things. A news outlet for all things IISER? A page to poke fun (harmless) and mock random people? The list of possible dreams is a long one. But for now, we want this to integrate the people of this campus. 
Eventually, we hope to hand this page over to IISER's photography and videography club and/or the literary club, with the hope that they can take this somewhere. Until then - Don't let's go gentle into that good night.

Rough sketch of plans for Summer Camp - 2016.

Update:

This event is no longer to be conducted, as the schools we were targeting have been approached by a commercial company that wants to conduct a similar event. We hope we find a different outlet for the energy and plans for this work.

(original post)
Dates: 27th June (Monday) - 2nd August (Saturday)

Timings: 10.00 am - 2.00 pm everyday (Lunch 12.00 pm - 1.00 pm)

Activities to be conducted:

Arts and Craft
 - Make-what-you-can
 - Painting challenges

Music and Dance
 - Group singing
 - Dance-off competition
 - Beat-fix

Sports
 - Teamwork challenges - keep-uppy
 - Capture the flag
 - Dog and the bone/Sack races

Science Demos

- Non Newtonian fluid- Object Floatation

- Soap bubble formation, soap solution games - Dry ice sets

- Fun facts with mirrors and lenses; Total Internal Reflection

Movie Screening
 - A kid's film with a take home lesson

Dream-squatch 
 - A life-lesson and inspirational session

Housekeeping Staff of Hostels

UPDATE 2:
The talks with the Director regarding the remaining ladies have ended with a blunt and negative response. The meeting was a short one, on the account of the Director being busy. In all, his response to our requests that the remaining ladies be re-instated can be summarised in a few lines -

1. As students, you shouldn't be involved in this business. Nothing can be done for the ladies.
2. There are certain government regulations that estimate the number of ladies required per square foot of area, and following these regulations has resulted in the removal of these women.
3. We have been as kind and generous to these ladies in the past - but it is simply not possible for me as Director to keep track of every face now.

From our point of view, the response to each of these arguments is relatively simple:

1. We are involved in this business as humans. Students is simply a secondary tag we bear.
2. a. What are these regulations? b. Were we then in violation of these previously?
3. How is this relevant?

With this in mind, we are now writing a formal letter to the Dean (students) - asking the following questions:

1. What is the IWD estimate of the square-foot area of each Hostel?
2. What are the regulations that determine how many housekeeping staff are required ?
3. How many ladies are estimated as required and why is this different from the previous estimate?

We will also be requesting the following:

1.  A copy of the contract that is currently in use for the housekeeping staff.
2. IWD approved plans of the hostels.

Having assumed this more confrontational status, we need all the support we can get from you. Please show that you care, share this or say a few words of your own.


UPDATE 1:
(original post below)

The director's reconsideration has yielded some benefit. Half of the ladies have been reinstated. For this, kudos to the director and the Dean (students). The problem is slowly marching towards resolution.It is to be noted that these ladies have been asked to work in the academic blocks, leaving the hostel still understaffed*. However, more importantly, in the eyes of the ladies who have not yet been reinstated, the situation has no doubt taken a very ugly turn. Whether they have misunderstood or this has actually happened, we can't tell -  but they have come to believe that the five taken back where chosen on a system of merit. Which leaves them feeling hard-done by, as they haven't really put a foot wrong.

There are two ways to describe this situation. We've chosen to be as objective as possible, to the point of sounding cold and distant to all the emotion involved. The picture isn't quite complete though. There is a very human side to this.

These ladies, or aunties, as we commonly refer to them - are still lining up outside the IISER gates on a daily basis. Deluding themselves to believe that they can win their jobs back by merely willing it to happen, because the alternative is probably beyond contemplation. A single mother of 3 children, a lady with an alcoholic for a husband (this woman also recently sustained substantial injuries in an accident) - these are stories that you cannot walk away from without a sour taste scarring your psyche for the rest of the day. And that doesn't do them justice, not even remotely. They aren't just stories, they are people - like the rest of us.

"I turned down another job to work here. And now I've lost both jobs. I did my work well, (I can vouch for that, this aunty works on my floor and it is invariably clean by 9.00 am) but one day I'm working and the next day I'm gone. What do I do?" The tears dry in the blazing heat, leaving a salt mine.

What can we do? For one, every voice counts. If you can share this, or post a few words of your own about this, it will be very helpful. For another, YATN plans to hold a meeting with the director. If you are on campus and feel as strongly about this as we do, please do try to make it. We will post details here as soon as we have them.

*Understated as this point is, it also a matter of critical importance. Will post developments as they happen.
_______________________________________

(Original post starts here)
This post is with regard to point 3 of the previous post.

IISER Mohali's hostels are kept clean by a body of housekeeping staff. They are primarily middle-aged to elderly ladies, earning close to minimum wages. On a daily basis, nearly 50 of them used to be responsible to keep 2 wings on 8 floors of 4 hostels clean. This included around 250 toilets stalls.

Recently, owing to a change in the structure of the tender for the housekeeping contract, 10 ladies were removed from their posts. (Please find the tender here.) This change in tender warrants some discussion, but prior to that, some crucial points must be noted. The remaining 40 ladies are now distributed as 10 ladies per hostel - meaning that they all have to handle almost an entire floor on their own. This considerable increase in duties of an already over-worked work force promises to be disastrous. Even ignoring concerns about the ten ladies who have been removed abruptly after 6-7 years of service, this move seems to be ill-conceived. A slightly more careful review of the tender shows causes for concern.

For one, the tender has been issued been issued by the Administration Office. This is an oddity, considering that other hostel services, such as the mess tender were issued by the Office of the Dean (Students). Of course, it could well be the case that this is how the duty is divided, however, the clear lack of understanding of the hostel's requirements on the part of the Admin Office is evident from the tender.

Under Annexure 1 - B. Broad details of Scope of Work

Pt 2 - Continuous moping to be done at reception floor and other floors during office hours. 9.00am - 5.30pm.

Pt 4 - Cleaning and dusting of entire furniture, partitions, wooden cabin walls, railings, doors, windows venetian blinds, racks, sofas, typewriters, computers, telephones, curtains, wall mounted fans etc. with dry/wet cloth, feather brush and duster.

The hostels do not have a "reception". Nor do they have a majority of the items listed in  pt 4 - sofas, typewriters, telephones, or wall mounted fans for instance. Similar errors are seen in sections C and D. Multiple other points refer to the hostel as the "office" - as if this was tender was simply adapted from one of the tenders used for the Administrative or Academic buildings. If that is the case - has sufficient thought been put into the number of staff required to handle the task?

These categorical arguments aside, there is the issue of the ten ladies who were removed. What can be done to solve the issue?

Before we discuss this, a few positions have to be clarified. The Dean (students) has put on record his opposition to this change in tender and has requested the Director to reconsider the situation. As YATN we are currently waiting for the response to this request before we formally state our position on the same.

Simultaneously, over a few meetings with the entire housekeeping staff of the hostels, we are trying to rectify a few other issues that they face. For one, we are trying to ensure that all the ladies read and develop at least a rudimentary understanding of their contracts. Also, to augment their minimum wage income, we are trying to help them organise themselves into a cooperative society. The goal of this is to help them produce and sell certain products in their free time, like in a cottage scale industry. Over time, if sufficiently successful, this organisation may be able to bid for the housekeeping contract directly.

Watch this space for updates. Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

New Beginnings

Quite like this page, YATN has seen a period of dormancy now. Our migrant labourer community have long since shifted out, and although we still support a few of the financially, there is little else we contribute on those lines. Over a few recent meetings, YATN has decided to take up a new mission, a new direction - in order to revive it's activities. 

Like one of our founders once wrote: There are many skeptic enthusiasts unaware of many things happening around them. This blog is also to invite them by telling what we do. No doubt, the blog may seem boastful, but let me assure you that it is written in good faith, keeping the larger community in mind.

Our plans for the near future:

1. We plan to increase the number of students who we support financially in Sohana and Chilla to around 15 students - for which we will need to raise funds aggressively.

2. We're currently organising a summer camp - a fun-filled vacation experience for the kids - in the last week of June.

3. We're working to organise the ladies of the Housekeeping staff into a cooperative society. This one is a long story and warrants an individual post dedicated to it. Will post details shortly.

A Diary Entry

It is a better day today, honestly. But amma still seems worked up. Like yesterday, she did not have her breakfast. And Bittu is also very cranky today. I hope papa comes back from that building soon. It has been nearly a week since I saw papa, he seems to be working quite hard.

Today my drawing teacher told me to draw the mountains and the sun rising from behind. But these buildings are much more beautiful, aren't they? Have you ever gone all the way up to the top of that building where papa works? It's the best place on earth. My papa is a painter. He used to take me along with him when amma went laying bricks on the other side of the building. You can see the whole city from where my papa works. Everything seems so small from up there, even a bus is the size of my little finger! The wind there is free. Free from any obstruction, free from any sense of responsibility. I like being there. It makes me forget even hunger. I love being up there.

Besides, it's the place where papa works. And he has the best job in the world, atop the highest place. Chhotu teases me because we don't have a television set and they have one. He says that his father earns much more. But only I know how jealous he feels when he sees me on top of that building with papa. He looks so small from there, not more than the nail of my little finger. The world seems so small from there.

I wish papa finishes his work and comes back so that I can go up there with him. Chhotu was saying that he will never come back. But I don't believe him. He is just jealous. I asked amma though, she said nothing. But it doesn't matter. Everything will be alright when I go back again on top of that building.