LABOUR-Policing Workers in an Industrial Estate

LABOUR Policing Workers in an Industrial Estate Gurbir Singh TARAPUR is synonymous with the atomic power station a little over 100 km north of Bombay, close to the Maharashtra-Gujarat coastal border. Few, however, know that the little fishing village also lends its name to one of the largest and most successful industrial zones floated by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC). Set up in 1974, the Tarapur MIDC today houses over 500 functioning industrial units which employ anywhere between 30 to 900 workers each, with a total workforce of nearly 30,000. Chemical and mini-steel plants and powerloom factories predominate but the assortment of production is wide. Contract labour is commonly used, especially the adivasi villagers from the neighbourhood. However, the non-absorption of the local youth in permanent jobs in the Tarapur units has remained a sour point over the last decades.