Skip to main content

Govt of India's labour governance framework in a state of paralysis, stakeholders 'ignored'

Counterview Desk 

The advocacy group Working Peoples’ Coalition's (WPC's) national secretariat has said in a statement that India's migrant workforce "continues to toil" even two years after the Covid-19 lockdowns, yet state apathy continues.
After the lockdown, said the group, informal workers in India suffered a 22.6% fall in wages, even as formal sector employees had their salaries cut by 3.6% on an average. Even before the pandemic, the growth of the informal sector was sluggish due to demonetisation; however, the pandemic spelt disaster for the informal sector, it added.

Text:

If the deaf is to hear, the sound must be loud and clear... Remembering these powerful words of Shaheed Bhagat Singh on the 91st death anniversary, who along with Sukhdev and Rajguru, stood firm for the cause of our country.
Today, the Working Peoples’ Coalition (WPC) agonizingly marks the second anniversary as a ‘Remembrance Day’ of the government's failure in addressing the lockdown-caused crisis of the migrant population.
Beyond promises for state elections and big-ticket pronouncements, we insist that this dark anniversary be used to ask difficult questions that seem to once again be leaving our minds as the pandemic recedes.
The WPC is not limited to any symbolism of just remembering the millions of migrant workers and their families who walked barefoot hundreds of miles on the national highways but also is committed to striving for a meaningful resolution to the issues which gave rise to those precarious conditions in the first place.
The WPC firmly stands up to the injustice and enforced violence on the working people despite repeated attempts to systematically veil and bury the toil of billions in the national growth. The WPC would continue to keep reminding those in power and authority – whether in the government, in the market or the society – that the apathy towards working people cannot be allowed to endure.
The government, especially one that propagates repeatedly in various electoral platforms of caring and protecting the working people, is obligated to provide emphatic answers, especially to the migrant workers who are the backbone of the national economy and responsible for the country’s economic growth.
The simple truth is that we have failed the workers on whose behalf we felt empathy and outrage when they became visible on our highways, refuting the images of India’s growth story. It is the abrogation of Directive Principles of State Policy, the denial of fundamental rights, human dignity, and socio-economic justice to working people of India -- which is truly ‘anti-national’.
The state has to take special care of those who are at the margins and belong to historically disadvantaged communities. Leave aside provisioning welfare, the government has completely robbed the working classes of whatever little dignity they had- through the lockdown and the two years after.
The WPC condemns the continuing apathy of working people and calls upon the union and the federal governments for immediate responses to the deteriorating condition of the working people across India.
After the lockdown, informal workers in India suffered a 22.6% fall in wages, even as formal sector employees had their salaries cut by 3.6% on an average, according to a report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Even before the pandemic, the growth of the informal sector was sluggish due to demonetisation, however, the pandemic spelt disaster for the informal sector.
  • No state has progressed beyond publishing Draft Rules under the four labour codes passed in 2019 and 2020, and the Central government is yet to finalise its Draft Rules and notify the Codes too. At a crucial time for workers, labour governance architecture is in a state of paralysis right now with stakeholders not clear as to what laws to institute and abide by.
  • Many draft policy documents highlighted the work conditions and lack of justice for migrant workers, including NITI Aayog's draft policy on migrant workers, but they are still waiting to see the light of the day.
  • Affordable Rental Housing Complex (ARHC) was announced on 20th July 2020 as a relief measure to the mass exodus of migrants from urban centres. Close to two years into the implementation of the scheme the performance is a dismal 6.55%.
  • Programmes such as the public distribution system (PDS), specific relief schemes, or crisis cash transfers, proved to be inadequate or excluded many informal workers either because they weren’t recognised as workers or because of their interstate movement. Most of the workers had received assistance from civil society and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), either directly or through workers’ unions. A telling empiric is that even after receiving the government cash transfers, a large majority of households had to take further debt to meet the expenses.
The Union government in collaboration with federal state governments must urgently address all the issues, demands and concerns mentioned above. WPC calls upon all the worker organisations, citizens’ forums, and other civil society organisations to stand with migrant citizens.
The Working Peoples’ Coalition (WPC) stands as a collective voice of informal workers in India who are demanding equity, social justice, and dignity. The WPC would persevere with an unflinching commitment to the ideals of this Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic. The WPC is the united front of the historically marginalized – but - inevitable future of this country – the working people.
---
Click here for WPC's analysis of the informal sector economy

Comments

TRENDING

'Enough evidence' in Indian tradition to support legal basis for same-sex marriage

By Iyce Malhotra, Joseph Mathai, Sandeep Chachra*  The ongoing hearing in the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage provides space for much-needed conversations on issues that have hitherto remained “invisible” or engaged with patriarchal locker room humour. We must recognize that people with diverse sexualities and complex gender identities have faced discrimination, stigma and decades of oppression. Their issues have mainly remained buried in dominant social discourse, and many view them with deep insecurities.

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.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Victim of communal violence, Christians in Manipur want Church leadership to speak up

By Fr Cedric Prakash SJ*  The first eleven days of May 2023 have, in many ways, been a defining period of Indian history! Plenty has happened in a rapid-fire stream of events. Ironically, each one of them are indicators of how crimes and the criminalisation of society has become the ‘new norm’; these include, the May Day rallies with a focus on the four labour codes which are patently against the rights of workers; the U S Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its Annual Report on 1 May stating that conditions for religious freedom in India “continued to worsen in 2022”; the continued protest by the Indian women wrestlers at Jantar Mantar for the expulsion of the chief of the Indian Wrestlers Federation on very serious allegations; the Elections in Karnataka on 10 May (with communalism and corruption as the mainstay); the release of the fake, derogative and insensitive film ‘The Kerala Story’; the release of World Free Press Index on 3 May which places India

Delhi HC rules in favour of retired Air Force officer 'overcharged' for Covid treatment

By Rosamma Thomas*  In a decision of May 22, 2023, the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of petitioner Group Captain Suresh Khanna who was under treatment at CK Birla Hospital, Gurugram, between April 28 and May 5, 2021, for a period of eight days, for Covid-19 pneumonia. The petitioner had to pay Rs 3,55,286 as treatment costs, but the Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) only reimbursed him for Rs 1,83,748, on the basis of government-approved rates. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Unlike other revolutionaries, Hindutva icon wrote 5 mercy petitions to British masters

By Shamsul Islam*  The Hindutva icon VD Savarkar of the RSS-BJP rulers of India submitted not one, two,or three but five mercy petitions to the British masters! Savarkarites argue: “There are no evidences to prove that Savarkar collaborated with the British for his release from jail. In fact, his appeal for release was a ruse. He was well aware of the political developments outside and wanted to be part of it. So he kept requesting for his release. But the British authorities did not trust him a bit” (YD Phadke, ‘A complex Hero’, "The Indian Expres"s, August 31, 2004)

Polygamy in India "down" in 45 yrs: Muslims' from 5.7 to 2.55%, Hindus' 5.8 to 1.77%, "common" in SCs, STs

By Rajiv Shah Amidst All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) justifying polygamy, saying it “meets social and moral needs and the provision for it stems from concern and sympathy for women”, facts suggest the the practice is down from 5.7 per cent of Muslim families in 1961 to 2.55 per cent in 2006.

India joining US sponsored trade pillar to hurt Indian farmers, 'promote' GM seeds, food

Counterview Desk  As many as 32 civil society organisations (CSOs), in a letter to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and India joining the trade pillar, have said that its provisions will allow the US to ensure a more favourable regulatory regime “for enhancing its exports of genetically modified (GM) seeds and GM food”, underlining, it will “significantly hurt the livelihoods of Indian farmers.”

Modi govt 'wholly untrustworthy' on Covid data, censored criticism on pandemic: Lancet

By Rajiv Shah   One of the world’s most prestigious health journals, brought out from England, has sharply criticised the Narendra Modi government for being “wholly untrustworthy on Covid-19 health data”, stating, the “official government figures place deaths at more than 530 000, while WHO excess death estimates for 2020 and 2021 are near 4·7 million.”