Children of Khatau mill employees at a sit-in near Churchgate, Bombay, after a long march from Azad Maidan on Tuesday protesting the management's failure to pay wages to its workers for the last six months.

MUMBAI, July 22: IT was a morcha with a difference. At least 50 children of Khatau Mill workers marched with their parents from Azad Maidan to Mantralaya today. Marching under the banner of Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti (GKKS) they protested the mill management's failure to pay the workers their wages for the last six months and their bonus for the year 1995-96.

While the workers had always felt the pinch, the situation has been worsened by the opening of the schools, with no money to pay for books, uniforms and the school fees hard to come by.

The morcha, which culminated in a sit-in opposite Hotel Samrat, demanded that Rs 5,000 be given out of the professional tax pool drawn by the government from the workers' wages over the years.

The Samiti leader Datta Iswalkar said, ``This tax was supposed to be used for the benefit of the workers, but crores of rupees collected over the years is lying unutilised with the government. If these children cannot pay their fees, they will stop studying and fall easy prey to criminal influence. Unless we step in at this stage, we will not be able to save them later.''

Anant Yadav's two children were sent back from school as they were unable to pay up Rs 400. The worst hit were the workers with more than one family member working at the mill. Like Laksmibai More, whose three daughters are employed at the mill as fitters. ``Two are of marriageable age. How can we afford that now if we remain unpaid?''

This is the eighth morcha the workers are participating in. In one such morcha at least 200 workers sat on a marathon hunger strike for eight days demanding their wages. Chief Minister Manohar Joshi had assured to pay their wages. However, he failed to keep his word.

Said another mill worker, Gadegaonkar, ``If we sit idle, the government will also sit idle and do nothing about our wages.''

A delegation of children led by Iswalkar and dalit poet Arjun Dangle also met the Chief Minister to present their memorandum, which asked, ``Why should we be blamed for being mill workers' children? Our only demand is that you ensure us our future.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.