From Faith to Struggle: Struggle of the poojaris and employees of Jain temples

Bharat Bhatt

In 1989 a union was formed by poojaris and other employees of the major Jain temples of India managed by the Sheth Kalyanji-Anandji religious trust. The major establishment is in the temple town of Palitana. This trust has branches in four states and is one of the richest religious trusts. Ironically however, the workers were denied even minimum wages in the place of worship. Initially the union was affiliated to INTUC but felt betrayed. Thereafter the union joined GFTU and thus started a historical struggle.

In 1989 the poojaris and the employees went on strike in all the branches of trust. During the strike even the poojaris (priests) refused to conduct Puja (worship). It was a total strike for five days which shook the trust and the trustees were forced to pay minimum wages to all the workers. But the struggle continued and in the last two decades, a total of six settlements were signed and many contract workers were made permanent. The most important achievement is that they now get the same pay scales and dearness allowances as decided by the central pay commission from time to time.

The members of the union also participated in the struggle for democratic rights led by NSM and Jan Sangharsh Manch for housing rights and economic rights for other deprived sections of society. During the struggle in the last two decades, the employees learnt that divisive politics in the name of religion, region and caste are against workers unity and must be opposed. United we stand and divided we fall.