President of Indian Confederation of Labour Ashok Bhattacharya addresses reporters. Picture by Ashok Karan

Ranchi, April 23: The youth wing of the Indian Confederation of Labour (ICL) announced to launch a countrywide campaign to rope in the youths for trade unions here today.

?Failure? of the trade union movement due to lack of youth participation has prodded the ICL to launch the drive that includes massive rallies in coming months, said it?s national president Ashok Bhattacharya.

The trade unions that are at present run by old leaders need revival to bring in changes, said Ashok Bhattacharya while speaking to the newsmen here today.

The young guns should come forward to take charge from the older generation to spearhead the trade union movement that used to fight for the causes of labourers, he said. ?There are discontentment and frustration among the youths today, which have led them to take to extremism. We want the youths to return to the mainstream and find a solution to every problem themselves,? he said.

Stressing on the need to protect the right to work, he said, the government should provide jobs of at least 200 days per year to the unemployed.

The ICL has planned to take out massive rallies in Dhanbad, Kanpur and Chennai on May 10, 12 and 15 respectively to give ?a wake-up call to the youths?.

It has also chalked out a host of other programmes during the next three months in different parts of the country. The last would be the national convention in Delhi on August 15.

The ICL, that has 6.12 lakh members all over the country to its credit, was formed on December 18, 1982. It is spread over 18 states, including Maharastra, Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Gujarat and New Delhi. It also boasts of pioneering work for the inclusion of 6th Pay Commission and also opposing the industrial relations bill.

Talking to newsmen, Bhattacharya said here the trade union movement is getting weaker, as a result the governments are overlooking people?s rights over land and forest. For example, he said, governments of Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa are depriving the poor tribals of their right over land and forest in the name of industrialisation. ?We think trade unions run by the youths would be able to fight for the poor landowners,? he said.