Maharashtra bus drivers hope for kisan strike-like success

Striking MSRTC staff at Azad Maidan, Fort. The employees, working in the 250-odd state depots, want the merger of the loss-making corporation with the state. Pic/Ashish Raje

It's been 21 days since the employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) began trickling into Azad Maidan in Fort. The early days of November, they recall, were nippy. For the protesters who came to the ground, bag and baggage, determined to make the thin carpet on gravel and mud their bed of dissent and rest, this at least seemed like a pleasant welcome. But the day we visit, Mumbai is struggling with afternoon humidity peaking at 85 per cent. The truant weather with out-of-turn showers has been a bit of a dampener for the swarm of protesters. So has the recent order to return to work. Just a day prior, on November 17, eight per cent of the protesting workforce - 7,541 of the total 92,266 employees - had resumed duty. As per reports, 23 buses had begun operations at various MSRTC depots. "They were threatened by their unions to return to work or risk being suspended. What could they do?" a bus driver says. "Even I got the order, but I am not going to cower. I am going to stay put till our demand is met." Around 2,000 employees have already been suspended as a fallout of the ongoing strike. On Friday, the transport body terminated services of 238 daily wage workers and suspended 297 staffers.

The staff's demands are exhaustive, but the remedy to their problems is one. The MSRTC employees, working in the 250-odd state depots, want the merger of the loss-making corporation with the state. "That will be the end to all our suffering," feels Nitin Murlidhar Bhagwat, a social worker and bus conductor. Bhagwat has taken the long, arduous road to Mumbai. He arrived here on foot from Baramati, 255 km by road, last Friday. It took him 12 days, he says. Giving him company was his 21-year-old son Raj Bhagwat, who is staying at a relative's home, while Bhagwat continues his strike. "I was very disturbed by the news of coworkers forced to kill themselves. It broke my heart," he says, referring to the spate of suicides that have been reported among employees in the last 18 months due to delay in salaries, saddling many in neck-deep loans.

Nitin Murlidhar Bhagwat, a social worker and bus conductor with the MSRTC, and his 21-year-old son Raj, walked from Baramati to Mumbai to protest at Azad Maidan

On October 13, an MSRTC mechanic with the Pandharpur depot had killed himself. With his death, the total casualty count of financially-distressed staffers since March 7, 2020 had reached 27, according to mid-day's report. "In the last one week too, there have been cases of people attempting suicide." Bhagwat admits that he too had contemplated taking the extreme step. "But, I also know that it's not the solution. I have seen how indifferent the MSRTC has been to the suicides. If I had died, only my family would suffer," he says, adding, "I realised that if I needed to draw the corporation's attention, I would have to do something different. That's why I walked all the way to Mumbai in my uniform. I wanted to be heard."

When Bhagwat joined the MSRTC in 1989, he was posted at a depot in the Pune district. His starting salary was Rs 1,600 a month. After 32 years in service, he now makes Rs 42,000, an amount only a fortunate few in the corporation earn. "But, that's only because of my experience." He says that having an education doesn't make an MSRTC employer eligible for a better salary. "If you've studied till Class X, you'll earn Rs 10,000 per month. If you have a BSc degree, you'd still make that. There's no motivation or perks, except toiling for years in the same job."

Bhagwat says that many of his coworkers committed suicide after the corporation delayed their salaries. "But, I know that it's not the solution. I have seen how indifferent the MSRTC has been to suicides. If I had died, only my family would suffer." Pics/Suresh Karkera

Bhagwat, who also works for Paani Foundation, a non-profit that works in the area of drought prevention and watershed management in Maharashtra, says this strike has enabled him to reach out to other distraught employees. "We are all in this together, and I am hoping that we will come out of it together."

Mumbai-based Sujeet Chavan has been with the MSRTC for seven years, and works at the Parel depot. As we speak with Bhagwat, Chavan joins in, opening a crumpled piece of paper, which he has been carrying in his shirt pocket. It's his salary slip. "I make Rs 16,000." He says that those working with the privately-owned Shivshahi and Shivneri buses, which ply on contract basis with MSRTC, make at least Rs 25,000. "The monthly transport expenses of these buses is Rs 50 lakh at least. They [the MSRTC] have that kind of money to pay them, but cannot pay our salaries on time."

Bhagyashree Mane (in beige kurta) says that despite working in the corporation for 11 years, her basic salary is still Rs 13,000

Bhagwat shows us a local news report that lists the starting salaries of state transport staff. Employees working for the Punjab and Himachal Pradesh road transport corporations are currently paid the highest in the country - Rs 25,600 per month. At Rs 12,080, Maharashtra transport staff is the least paid among 10 states. Bhagwat believes that salaries will be streamlined once the state takes over the corporation. Chavan says they have fielded this demand, only because they feel that the corporation no longer has their interest at heart. "We have lost faith in the unions and our bosses," he says. In 2019, Chavan was chargesheeted in an accident case in Nerul, and was asked to cough up Rs 70,000 as fine. He is still fighting the case. "I was driving the bus, when a speeding biker coming from the opposite side, slipped and fell into a ditch. His helmet flew and cracked the window of the bus. In the police punchnama, I was held responsible for the accident, and asked to pay for the damages caused. I can barely make ends meet with my salary; how am I going to pay a huge fine? They want us to do our duty, but they won't help us, if something goes wrong."

In March 2020, when the pandemic broke, the MSRTC staffers were among the many state employees asked to continue working. Instead of their usual routes, they were posted in different parts of the state, to drop and pick-up essential staffers. Bhagwat's routes included Deonar in Mumbai. "MSRTC staff working in Mumbai were promised Rs 300 per day for COVID-19 duty, and we continued working on that assurance, but that money is yet to come to us," says another employee.

Shruti Swarup Mirazkar, who works in the Shirala depot in the Sangli division, with her husband Swarup, is the only woman conductor from the depot to have joined the protest

Bus conductor Shankar Tukaram Lingayat, who works at the Panvel depot, remembers losing a fellow driver to infection. "During the pandemic, my friend used to ply daily from Panvel to Dadar. He caught the infection, while on duty. When he got sick, he decided to go to his village in Dhule, but his condition worsened and he died. He is survived by ageing parents, a wife and small child. Nobody from the MSRTC went to meet his family."

Around 200 MSRTC staffers died after catching the virus since March 2020. In June this year, Maharashtra transport minister and MSRTC chairman Anil Parab announced financial aid of Rs 5 lakh each for the nominees of MSRTC employees, who died of COVID-19, if they were not eligible under the government's aid scheme. Parab also announced an extension of the state government's scheme of Rs 50 lakh financial aid for the families of MSRTC employees, who died due to infection till June 30, 2021. "None of that money has reached the families of our deceased co-workers," said a protester.

Sujeet Chavan who works at the Parel depot, says that staff working with privately-owned Shivshahi and Shivneri buses, which ply on contract basis with MSRTC, make at least Rs 25,000. "The monthly transport expenses of these buses is Rs 50 lakh at least. They [the MSRTC] have that kind of money to pay them, but cannot pay our salaries on time."

Sitting in a huddle, not too far away from Bhagwat is a group of women bus conductors. Shruti Swarup Mirazkar, who works in the Shirala depot of the Sangli division, has been in Mumbai for eight days. She is the only woman from the depot to have come to Azad Maidan. "I am representing the other female employees, who couldn't come due to family commitments." She is here with her ally and husband Swarup Mirazkar, who is confident that her sacrifice won't go waste. "My son wanted to come along, but he had his Class VIII exams. He is now staying with my two mothers-in-law," she tells us in Marathi. Mirazkar says that there are no fixed hours of work at the depot. "We start at 6 am, and go on till 8 pm sometimes. Since many of the women staffers have families, and have to be back home by late afternoon, they come as early as 4 am. But, even then, they are made to stay till evening. We face harassment," says Mirazkar, who has been employed with MSRTC for 11 years. "After working so hard, when we request for leave, they make it difficult. If we ask for eight days, they give us five. If we ask for anything longer, they demand a medical certificate."

Bhagyashree Mane, who hails from the Latur division, says that despite working in the corporation for 11 years, her basic salary is Rs 13,000. "We are eight members in the family, including my eight-year-old son and three-year-old daughter. My husband is a farmer. Since he doesn't have a fixed income, the family depends on me. I can hardly give my kids a good education." Mane says that it's been hard to leave her children behind and spend restless nights in an open ground. "But, this is my only chance to give my family a better life. I am doing this for them."

200
Approx no. of MSRTC staffers who died of COVID