Veteran trade leader Datta Iswalkar, a selfless champion of mill workers’ rights and founder president of the Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti, passed away on Wednesday, April 7.
He died at the age of 72 at a hospital in Mumbai following an illness, his family said. The unionist is survived by his wife, son Haresh and three daughters.
Iswalkar was one of the prominent labour union leaders, who was fighting for the rights of mill workers and labourers. He was instrumental in getting the state government to allocate free housing for mill workers.
Iswalkar was admitted to the J J Hospital due to a sudden illness on Monday, April 5. He was about to undergo a surgery when he breathed his last at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, April 7, his son Haresh told a news agency PTI.
Iswalkar started his career as a peon in Modern Mills and went on become a torchbearer of the cause after his namesake Datta Samant.
On October 2, 1989, Iswalkar had founded ''Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti'' to fight for the rights of the mill workers, especially after the mill workers'' strike in the 1980s. He remained president till the end.
A press note issued by GKSS said 10 defunct mills were revived by his efforts from 1988-1990. In 1999, Iswalkar took on the mission of seeking housing for mill workers on the mill lands of Girangaon in Central Mumbai. He pursued the cause with various governments for decades, and so far, approximately 15,000 former mill employees have been rehoused in these locations.
In 2000, Iswalkar started an agitation for homes of workers on mill lands and as a result 15,000 mill workers got free homes in the buildings built on mill lands so far.
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