The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : High wages at Smart City hit coir sector

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Wednesday, Jun 04, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

High wages at Smart City hit coir sector

Special Correspondent

Sudhakaran says workers started leaving the industry

Minister says Rs.400-a-day for manual labour high
‘Development should not destroy traditional sectors’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The high wages offered by contractors at the Smart City construction site in Kochi have begun to affect the coir industry in adjoining Alappuzha district, according to Minister for Coir G. Sudhakaran.

“If things are going to be like this, we may have to take up the issue with the Chief Minister,” Mr. Sudhakaran said at a workshop on the use of coir as a geo-textile here on Tuesday.

Improper decision

He said it was improper for the Smart City contractors to offer “abnormally high wages” at their work site. Many coir workers from Alappuzha were boarding the morning trains to Kochi, lured by the offer of up to Rs.400-a-day for manual labour.

He said there was a limit to what a traditional industry such as coir could offer as wages.

Workers, especially the youth, were leaving the coir industry.

Trickery

He described the high wages offered in Kochi as “the trickery of international capital.” For a period of time the international capital would buy labour at high rates, only to get rid of it later.

On returning home, the workers would find their traditional means of livelihood gone, he said.

The Minister said this was not the kind of development Kerala needed. New-age industries should come to the State providing jobs to the educated youth.

At the same time, growth in that sector should not destroy traditional sectors such as the coir industry which sustained several lakhs of poor families in the State, he said.

Coir geo-textile

The workshop, organised by the Directorate of Coir Development, discussed the uses of coir as a geo-textile for checking soil erosion, consolidating road and canal embankments and protecting beaches prone to sea erosion.

Minister for Local Self-Government Paloli Mohammed Kutty inaugurated the workshop. Minister for Public Works Mons Joseph, Coir Board Chairman A.C. Jose, Coir Commission Chairman Anathalavattom Anandan and Additional Secretary for Coir Development Rani George spoke at the inaugural function.

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