This is a an inroduction to vijay kanhare written by himself. Littel did we know that we would use it after his demise.

I was born in 1951. I am the fourth child of Manorama Kanhere and Purushottam Kanhere. My mother had studied only up to the seventh standard before her marriage. My father had a post graduate degree in Sanskrit and also a law degree. He was a teacher. My mother later studied and completed her graduation when she was fifty-one years old. All through she was working outside the home as a teacher and inside the home as the mother of five children. She studied after her seventh standard as an external student. I grew up later in Tarapore, (now it is urbanized and there is an atomic energy plant and many industries there) a small village then. After my father resigned from high school there, we came to Thane and Dombivli- suburbs of Mumbai. Up to the fifth standard I studied in government schools. My mother was a teacher in a high school and I got admitted there in the fifth grade.

I was born in 1951. I am the fourth child of Manorama Kanhere and Purushottam Kanhere. My mother had studied only up to the seventh standard before her marriage. My father had a post graduate degree in Sanskrit and also a law degree. He was a teacher. My mother later studied and completed her graduation when she was fifty-one years old. All through she was working outside the home as a teacher and inside the home as the mother of five children. She studied after her seventh standard as an external student. I grew up later in Tarapore, (now it is urbanized and there is an atomic energy plant and many industries there) a small village then. After my father resigned from high school there, we came to Thane and Dombivli- suburbs of Mumbai. Up to the fifth standard I studied in government schools. My mother was a teacher in a high school and I got admitted there in the fifth grade.

Learning by rote was a strict ‘no no’ in our family. To study applied science was a choice. I wanted to study pure sciences and later may be teach. I talked to one of my teachers in the Ruia College. He said, “You should be prepared for two eventualities-your colleagues may not be interested in teaching and you may be earning a lot less than your co-students.” I opted for graduation in physics. In the last year of my graduation, in 1971, India was in turmoil. Studies were not engaging enough. I had briefly read about Baba Amte’s ‘Workers’ University’. In May 1971 I left Mumbai and traveled to Somanath Project in Chandrapur district.  Baba Amte accepted me as a student there. We worked as workers in the fields and read books and discussed amongst ourselves. It was a tough year especially during re-plantation of paddy.

A movement of aadivasis was taking shape in Shahade area of Dhule district. Five of us went to Shahade in the then Dhulia district (now Nandurbar). Initially we had given a firm commitment of working there for six months. Our involvement in the immense problems of the aadivasis in the area led to the two of us continuing to work there for more than a decade. The initial issue taken up was the loss of lands of the tribal population. It was realized through surveys that sixty percent of tribals were landless in the planes.

Family:

In March 1972, my elder brother Vikram joined us in Shahade. He had left his job in a pharmaceutical company. He was in Shahade till 1975. After 1975, he was active in urban areas. Later, he and Ranjana, his friend and partner, initiated and ran a boarding school in the third range of Satpura for four years. At present they are leading Janarth, Shahade and working for education and health among aadivasis in Nandurbar district.

My mother was active in social issues till her sad demise at age 83. When she was in her seventies she initiated an agitation for improvement of services to pensioners by a branch of a bank. It ended successfully in the bank actually improving its services to pensioners. She was a support for women and children having problems. In a district newspaper for Thane a woman activist had written an article titled ‘Kanherebai ek adharvad’ meaning `Ms. Kanhere, a strong support (like a banyan tree). She was an inspiration for many of us.

My father was more a silent person. My mother had suffered due to patriarchical division of labour at home. My father used to teach students by making them read more and develop our understanding with our own efforts. He was always there if the need arose. When I was at Baba Amte’s place, he wrote, “The place may not turn out as you expected, life may not turn out as you want. Then do not make it a prestige issue. Just come home. You know I always felt that one has to choose ones path. And you are always welcome here”.

My eldest brother, Shriharsh was active in social issues since his college days. He left his well paying bank job in his forties and joined social activities full time. He was also part of activities in Madhya Pradesh in the Narmada movement.

My elder sister, Shailaja-Anagha Deshpande retired recently as a college teacher. She has converted a room in her house as a study room for students who do not have enough space in their own homes and have a dearth of guidance in their families. For the last twenty years her home is a home for many students.

My younger sister, Swatija Manorama is active in the women’s movement and is part of Forum Against Oppression of Women (FAOW). She writes a lot about issues including health.

I am the husband of Sujata Gothoskar (1975 till today). She had been active with workers from her college days. She is one of the founders of FAOW and the Women’s Centre. She is a researcher in problems faced by women workers in particular. She has done work in occupational health problems of women in the informal sector. We wrote together the first popular booklet in Marathi- ‘Rape and struggle against it’ in 1980. Its first edition was exhausted in the first two months. Later I wrote a booklet in Marathi- ‘Apprehensions and objections about women’s liberation – our answers’. 

I am the father of Aaloka. She is doing doctorate in Mathematics. She had written one research article during her vacation before her masters about problems of women workers in Shradhanand Mahila Ashram, who worked in motor winding, after visiting their work site and interviews.

The movement in Shahade:

A movement of landless labourers began in 1972. It was said in those days that it is impossible to build organization of only agricultural laborers in rural areas. Massive efforts by people gave birth to a lively organization – Shramik Sanghatana. Over the years, we developed a pattern where representatives of labourers consult with the mass of labourers gathered outside the place of negotiations all through the process of negotiations. This practice led to, for the first time, women laborers sitting face to face with landowners to negotiate their wages. Men from both sides asked, `What is the need for women to sit in this negotiation?’  This was reported to the gathering outside by me and women objected. They insisted and they sit through in the negotiations.

This and other similar experiences led to the first ‘Women’s Shibir’ (a study camp) at Kharavad in 1973. Women complained about, among other problems, the problem of alcoholism among men. After a suggestion to act and not remain confined to complaints, all the women went to a nearby village Karankheda and encircled that small village and broke all the liquor pots.

Later this powerful practice continued not only in that area but also in other parts of India.

Shramik Sanghatana was a path breaking effort. Activists from the Kashtakari Sanghatana, Dahanu regularly visited us for exchange of experience and learning in the late 1970s. In the initial phase of Shramjivi Sanghatana in Thane district our experience proved to be useful as it said in its report after completing ten successful years.

We realized that many researchers wrote about our activities. We decided to take up writing and research ourselves. I presented a paper in the first national workshop on Participatory Research in 1980. This was an emerging research methodology then. Later in 1981, I was invited to present a paper on our experience at an International conference on Participatory Research in what was then Yugoslavia. I worked with the ILO on a paper on ‘Grass-Roots Self-Reliance in Shramik Sanghatana, Dhulia district’.

It is felt by people that people are recipients of good ideas and leaders provide ideas and guidance. I took up research to find out attempts made by people before the emergence of Ambarsing Suratvanti a towering personality and a very deep thoughtful aadivasi leader who was born, brought up and worked in Dhule. Were people ‘active’ before Ambarsing and before urban youths like us joined the movement? I realized and documented efforts by people in three villages in three different circumstances in that area. I was able to document long, protracted and heroic struggles of the aadivasi labourers. These had not been documented and were not part of their self-image. These were not part of our own thinking either. People used to say, “Only after you came we became wise, only because of Ambarsing we improved”. We used to respond, “No! No! Organization exists because of you.” This statement needed a solid basis.

People had struggled and learnt lessons from their struggles without any formal leadership. When the lessons were reflected in a new leadership and organization, they responded wholeheartedly. People had their own storage of knowledge and ideas. This research with PRIA, Delhi helped to shape my thinking about the role of individuals and proper perspective about it. PRIA with its basis in participatory research accepted to support this study.

Occupational Health:

Around 1984 I got interested in the issue of Occupational Health (OH). Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) was established in 1982 by Dr Rajesh Tandon and others. I asked PRIA to sanction research in Occupational health. I also needed to earn in that period and there emerged a national programme on OH of PRIA. This was prior to the disaster in Bhopal. 

As part of this activity I have discussed with many activists, workers, leaders, environmentalists and scientists in many countries. We realized that there is a vast storage of knowledge among workers. We all also realized that efforts by workers to bring in safer workplaces remain largely undocumented.

As the activity progressed, J B Patel suggested more pointed activity and the National Campaign on Dust Related Lung Diseases was formed. Activities on byssinosis (Misraji in Ahmedabad, research and advice activities in Mumbai, Amritsar) took shape as part of this campaign.

In the later period, Harsh Jaitli took the programme to a new and exciting direction of Environmentally Sustainable Industrial development. My participation with the then emerging activity on environment in Ratnagiri district has continued till today. I am a friend of Parivartan led by Ashok Kadam. I have been involved and discussed extensively with Parivartan, from the initial stages of emergence of his idea `People’s Plan of Development’. 

    

In 1988 Advocate Gayatri Singh suggested that we involve unions in a group on OH. Both of us visited many unionists in Mumbai and Pune. Occupational Health and Safety center (OHSC) was formed in Mumbai. I am the coordinator of OHSC from 1988 till today.  Our first activity was the study of OH problems of sewer workers who enter underground sewers. This we did on the suggestion of their union. I have worked consistently with the union of municipal workers in Mumbai, the Municipal Majdoor Union (MMU) and the union of municipal nurses and paramedical staff. The above study was path-breaking and in the later period we saw many studies about this problem. I was invited for initial meetings of sewer workers in Ahmedabad and also for forming first safety committee there.

Later I initiated orientation courses for doctors, as there are very few inputs on OH issues in their graduation studies. Earlier I had prepared reference sheets for doctors and activists regarding legally listed OH problems in India, signs and symptoms and diagnosis and legal rights of doctors and workers. These reference-sheets are appreciated outside India as well. 

OHSC activities are continuing with our advice center and orientation courses for doctors. Through this activity the idea of Malvadkar of ‘Making participatory the contributory health insurance scheme-ESIS’ emerged. With help of space and lung function tests and hearing test meters contributed by workers and unions we have checked more than 2000 workers and 650 workers have benefited only in Mumbai. The idea of ‘open house ongoing workers’ training’ was initiated by me. Later it spread to Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Aurangabad. It was converted into an advice and check-up center with a strong component of training.

I have worked with groups working on environmental concerns. I was a panelist of the People’s Tribunal in Vadodara organized by the Indian People’s Tribunal. I have worked with the Green Peace and participants of Community Health Survey Skill Share (CHESS) in the last four years.

Activity with various sections of municipal workers – garages, malaria control, hospitals and others in Mumbai led to the idea of building of unity of worker-citizens and other citizens. I initiated activity in Aurangabad, Maharashtra on the basis of this idea through PRIA. The unions there responded positively because they knew about activity in Mumbai and also activity in Aurangabad regarding byssinosis – disease of textile workers caused due to cotton dust and about doctors’ orientation course. We will build on the good results gained in Mumbai and Aurangabad. Discussions are ongoing with the union in Sholapur. They have responded positively. Sholapur is a smaller city with one million people. With Parivartan in Chiplun we will move ahead in urban areas there.