25th March 2015 | Khunti District, Jharkhand | Amita Tuti
In India, having a job with government institutions brings with it a sense of security- timely wages, increments and other benefits. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), a state-owned telecommunications company, has not been paying 11 people who work in the office at Khunti, Jharkhand for the past year and a half.
Rajeev Ranjan, one of the affected workers explains that they are caught between the Department and the contractors responsible for providing labour to it.
Community Correspondent Amita Tuti started documenting this issue last April, when workers were getting ready to protest. After several demonstrations and strikes, the situation has remained unchanged. In the meantime people like Usha who continue coming to work, are drowning in debts to feed their families.
Workers say that the conditions are the in many of BSNL's office in Jharkhand. Video Volunteers' Community Correspondents from different districts are in the process of finding more such cases of non payment, stay tuned for the videos.
Community Correspondents come from marginalised communities in India and produce videos on unreported stories. These stories are ’news by those who live it.’ they give the hyperlocal context to global human rights and development challenges. See more such videos at www.videovolunteers.org. Take action for a more just global media by sharing their videos and joining in their call for change.
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