Skip to main content

Workers 'forced' to give up basic rights. Why not ask corporates to shed profit for 3 yrs?

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey*
All the narratives of a progressing nation, Rajiv Gandhi's 'marching into the 21st century,' Atal Behari Vajpayee's 'shining India,' APJ Abdul Kalam's 'providing urban amenities in rural areas,' Manmohan Singh's achievement of 8-9% Gross Domestic Product (DGP) growth rates and Narendra Modi's 'smart cities' have crumbled in the wake of national level migrant workers' crisis during the coronavirus lockdown.
Lakhs of them are marching, cycling or hitchhiking home thousands of kilometres away, a phenomenon not observed anywhere else in the world either because nowhere people migrate in such large numbers for jobs or foreign governments took care of their workers better than in India. It has been proved that a country desiring to be a global economic or military power doesn't have the wherewithal or the political will to take care of its poor.
When the poor needed the succour most, they were simply abandoned. In spite of the Constitution of India being guided by the concept of 'socialism' formally, this tragedy has also highlighted the discriminatory treatment by government on the basis of class, and by extension caste, as class and caste categories in India more or less overlap. While for children of moneyed class free transportation was arranged, the poor even if they managed to get onto a train or a bus were made to pay because of which in some cases they abandoned the idea of travel.
Opening up the sale of liquor on May 4, 2020, effectively made a mockery of lockdown when the police gave up attempts to prevent people from gathering like they were doing prior to this. The people who queued up in front of liquor shops were the poor, not the rich, similar to queues during demonetisation. Hence the government not only deliberately allowed assembly of poor but also took away from them precious little cash they had which could have been spent on buying food or health care for their families.
To add salt to injury now workers are being expected to give up their basic rights. A number of state governments have suspended various labour laws to varying degrees for different time periods. Uttar Pradesh has suspended all labour laws for three years and in Gujarat workers will be made to work for extra hours but not paid adequately for that.
May 1 started getting celebrated as labour rights day because it was on this day in 1890 that American workers resolved not to work for more than 8 hours a day. But Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and UP governments have shown scant regard for this hard won right and issued ordinances which may not stand the scrutiny of law even if they are passed by respective legislative assemblies.
When Uttar Pradesh Workers' Front approached the High Court with a Public Interest Litigation the government quietly withdrew the 8 May order of permitting 12 hours of work per day and 72 hours per week without additional payment for overtime, before the next hearing date.
The Prime Minister views all the discomfort borne by workers as a sacrifice for the nation. He has chosen the most exploited class of society for inflicting sacrifices which they are indeed making by losing their jobs and incomes, dying in accidents on roads or railway tracks while going back home or simply going through the excruciating experience of walking for thousands of kilometres with all belongings on their body without any guarantee of food or water, in some cases with women and children. 
Everybody working for a unit could be paid salaries good enough for survival. After all that is what we are expecting from the workers?
It is a matter of national shame that our workers are subjected to this humiliating rigmarole. If workers can make sacrifices why not others, especially the capitalist class, which anyway has surplus accumulated income. If workers are expected to give up the guarantees of working hours and minimum wages why don't we ask the industrialists to work not for profit for the next three years? All private companies could be converted to Trusts with Board of Trustees replacing Board of Directors and Managing Trustee replacing the owner.
Everybody working for the company could be paid their salaries good enough for survival. After all that is what we are expecting from the workers? This is the advice Mahatma Gandhi had for owners of big businesses. He suggested that owners of businesses must consider themselves only as trustees of all the assets controlled by them meant for common good of human society.
Hence everybody could get a salary according to their skill but it would be desirable to follow the principle laid down by the second most important political thinker of the country after Gandhi, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, that difference between the incomes of poorest and richest should not be more than ten times.
If this standard is adopted by all organisations and governments then it would be in the interest of larger society and as a country we'll be able to deal with the setback to economy due to lockdown in an effective manner. If the minimum wages under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is Rs 202 in UP then the maximum salary anybody should draw in government or private sector in UP should not exceed Rs. 2,020 per day or Rs 60,600 in a month.
Any profit above the total expenditure of companies should go in government treasury and government could waive income tax for this duration. If National Food Security Act (NSA) extends its coverage universally and education, health care, transport, communication systems and banks are all nationalised then there is no reason why any family should not be able to meet all its expenses within this amount. Free education and free heath care is a policy followed by many countries successfully.
Giving priority to public transport over private motorised vehicles is another such sound policy. If people with an inclination for service, as we witnessed a number of them during relief work, were to take up service sector positions and work on honorary basis or for minimum salary, the governance could really improve and corruption could be brought under check.
Hence by a wise selection of policy measures the cost of living can be brought down. In the coronovirus lockdown almost everybody was down to fulfilling only their basic needs giving up most of the comforts and facilities of modern living. What was forced upon us should become a subject of voluntary acceptance.
Unless such austerity measures are followed we may not be able to recover from the doldrums we're in.
---
*Arundhati Dhuru is with National Alliance of People's Movements; Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay award winning social activist, is with Socialist Party (India)

Comments

TRENDING

Reducing emission? India among top nations whose coal as energy source going up

By NS Venkataraman*  The State of the Global Climate report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that the year 2023 was the warmest year on record, with the global temperature of 1.4 degree celsius above pre-industrial 1850-1900 base line.

Lockdown 'total failure' of science more than of politics: Open letter on 4th anniversary

Counterview Desk  In an open letter to fellow academicians, scientists and medical practitioners in India, marking the fourth anniversary of India's lockdown (25 March 2024), the Managing Committee* of the Universal Health Organisation (UHO) has insisted on the need to "repair two years of immense damage to science".

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Magnetic, stunning, Protima Bedi 'exposed' malice of sexual repression in society

By Harsh Thakor*  Protima Bedi was born to a baniya businessman and a Bengali mother as Protima Gupta in Delhi in 1949. Her father was a small-time trader, who was thrown out of his family for marrying a dark Bengali women. The theme of her early life was to rebel against traditional bondage. It was extraordinary how Protima underwent a metamorphosis from a conventional convent-educated girl into a freak. On October 12th was her 75th birthday; earlier this year, on August 18th it was her 25th death anniversary.

Savarkar 'criminally betrayed' Netaji and his INA by siding with the British rulers

By Shamsul Islam* RSS-BJP rulers of India have been trying to show off as great fans of Netaji. But Indians must know what role ideological parents of today's RSS/BJP played against Netaji and Indian National Army (INA). The Hindu Mahasabha and RSS which always had prominent lawyers on their rolls made no attempt to defend the INA accused at Red Fort trials.

'Wrong direction': Paris NGO regrets MNC ArcelorMittal still using coal-based steel

By Rajiv Shah  A new report by Paris-based non-governmental research and campaigning organization, Reclaim Finance, has blamed the MNC ArcelorMittal – formed in 2006 following the takeover and merger of the western European steel maker Arcelor (Spain, France, and Luxembourg) by Indian-owned Mittal Steel – for using use “climate destructive” metallurgical coal for its projects in India.

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Attack on foreign students: Gujarat varsity's reputation, ranking at stake, say academics

Counterview Desk  Expressing anguish over the attack on international students in Gujarat University hostels, a letter claimed to have been signed by 122 current and former academics has asked the Gujarat Vice Chancellor, Dr Neerja Gupta, to provide emotional support to the attacked students and to ensure their physical safety.  

As double engine takes backseat in Odisha, BJP is pitted against 'firmly rooted' BJD

By Sudhansu R Das  BJP has got 25 years to build its party base in Odisha. After 25 years, it felt helpless and insecure to fight elections on its own strength. The party was almost crazy to have an alliance with the ruling BJD in Odisha.  Looking for alliance at the time of election shows that the party has not groomed its grassroots level workers into potential leaders.  The state BJP leaders woke up and convinced the Central leaders that they are capable of going solo; the alliance was stillborn. The question is can BJP defeat BJD which is firmly rooted in Odisha after launching piles of populist programs in the state.