Rajput’s statement came after Congress legislator Arjun Modhwadia sought ‘urgent public attention’ over an industrial accident that happened at Onerio Lifecare Private Limited, a pharmaceutical factory, in Padra of Vadodara district on January 31 in which three labourers died and two sustained serious injuries.

Flagging the issue of industrial safety and those of labourers, Modhwadia sought to know if the government plans a safety audit of factories. He also demanded whether action would be taken against the company in connection with the fatal Vadodara accident.

In reply, Rajput said that to check such incidents from happening, the Director (Industrial Safety) of the Gujarat government does inspection of factories and if found necessary, then the factory proprietor is also given a show cause notice. If the proprietor does not follow the instructions, then cases are also registered in courts.

“Under the Factories Act, so far, criminal cases have been registered against 3,901 people for not following safety rules,” Rajput said.

The Gujarat minister added that 244 labourers had died in various accidents in 2021. “In 2021, there were 45,920 registered factories (in Gujarat)… In 2022, the number of factories increased to 47,762 and the number of deaths due to accidents was 238. Now (in 2023), the factories have increased to 49,246 and 232 deaths have been reported. But the government is concerned to ensure that these 232, too, do not die (in accidents) and how we can bring this down to zero,” he stated.

Rajput also defended his government by stating that the ratio of industrial accidents in Gujarat has come down in comparison to previous years.

Meanwhile, the same time, Modhwadia highlighted that at 570, Gujarat has the highest number of hazardous factories in India, including 98 in Bharuch and 89 in Vadodara. “It is my request that such steps be taken so that no more accidents happen in these hazardous factories,” he stressed.

In his response, Rajput said the government is taking these steps as per the changing technology and nature of accidents. With regard to the accident at the Vadodara pharma factory, Rajput said that the next of kin of three labourers have been given Rs 30 lakh by the factory as compensation and they will get other compensation from the state government as per rules. He also stated that the factory has been ordered to shut and a detailed inquiry is on.

Related:

29% increase in daily wage workers suicides in 2 years: Labour Ministry

Eradicate manual scavenging completely says SC increasing compensation to families of workers who die at work to Rs 30 lakh

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For Labour Welfare Scheme the Budget Estimate (BE) or original allocation in 2022-23 was Rs 120 crore but the actual expenditure up to 13 February was only Rs 36 crore. The allocation for 2023-24 at Rs 75 crore is also less than the previous year.

In the case of the National Data Base of Unorganized Sector Workers, the BE for 2022-23 was Rs 500 crore but only 120 crore was utilized. The BE for 2023-24 at Rs 300 crore is also lower than the previous year.

An important scheme called Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana was allocated a sum of Rs 6,400 crore but actual expenditure up to 13 February 2023 was only Rs 4,188 crore while the allocation for 2023-24 is very low at Rs 2,272 crore.

In the case of an important social security scheme called Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Man Dhan Yojana Rs 350 crore was allocated but the actual expenditure in the first 10 months was only Rs 93 crore.

A sum of only Rs 10 crore was allocated for Rehabilitation of Bonded Labor but the spending was lower still at Rs 4.8 crore.

There is need for much more work to be taken up aimed at reducing occupational health problems

For the National Pension Scheme for Self-Employed Persons and Shopkeepers a sum of Rs 50 crore was allocated but just a token sum of Rs 2 lakh was spent. In the next year 2023-24 also there is an allocation for only Rs 3 crore.

This shows that due to under-utilization several important schemes for the working class have been adversely affected. Remedial action should be taken in the very near future in this context.

The Ministry of Labor and Employment is one of the most important ministries of India with very important responsibilities. Its resource allocation should also be much higher as important new initiatives also have to be taken.

To give just one example there is need for much more work to be taken up aimed at reducing occupational health problems including occupational diseases and accidents which have been a source of immense distress for a very large number of workers. There are new challenges for many sections of workers
who will be more vulnerable to climate change and global warming.

Keeping in view these and other factors there is a clear need for higher resource allocation and improved utilization.

*Honorary convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include ‘Protecting Earth for Children’ and ‘Man over Machine (Gandhiji’s Legacy)’. Data source: 41st report (2022-23), 17th Lok Sabha, of the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Labor, Textiles and Skills Development (report for the Ministry of Labor and Employment)

Courtesy: Counterview

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“After the introduction of the New Economic Industrial Policy, public industries were privatized all over the country, the national wealth was looted by the big capital houses and the rights of the workers were attacked. Whichever party was in government, it curtailed the rights of the workers and worked to abolish the laws made in the interests of the workers.”

The above things were said by Dinkar Kapoor, President of UP Workers Front.

In the 20th convention of contract labour union at Renukoot, Sonbhadra, on 26th February, he said that the present government has eradicated all the labour laws and managed to get four anti-labour laws passed by the Parliament. This government is determined to increase the working hours from 8 to 12.

The Yogi government had even attempted to get the laws passed   during the Corona pandemic. However it had to be withdrawn after the Union seeked reprieve in the High Court. In the present times, it is an imperative task for workers to establish their own independent political force to give a striking blow to the pro-corporate and anti-labour policies, of the capitalist political parties.

He aspired that the contract labour union would proceed in this direction.

Taking a proposal in the conference, the speakers said that the condition of contract labourers in Sonbhadra, the main industrial center of the state, was grave.  On the basis of the law, they are forced to work for their whole life at one place, permanently.

Due to non-proviso of revised wages of labourers from 2019, they have been forced to work for very low wages. Women labourers are made to work for just Rs.200.

There are arrears of wages in projects like Anpara and Obra. Due to non-provision of safety equipment in industries, death of workers in accidents are a routine or everyday affair. Benefits like employment card, attendance card, pay slip, ESI, gratuity, bonus are also not being given to laborers in many industries.

In such a situation, instead of shattering their morale, the workers will have to unite to prevent the anti-labour actions. In the conference, Yuva Manch convenor Rajesh Sachan said that unemployment was escalating day by day, giving a mortal blow to the economic state.

After obtaining a degree in engineering, the youth is forced to work as a contract labourer being paid a very low scale of wages. Employment rights campaign is engulfing the whole country on the demand of establishing employment as a fundamental right, filling the vacant posts, giving unemployment allowance and giving a minimum wage of Rs 25000 to every labourer. Contract labourers should also join hands in this.

Expressing anguish over the current attack on democracy, the conference strongly condemned the notice issued by the police to popular Bhojpuri folk singer Neha Singh Rathore and demanded the government to withdraw it.

Kripashankar Panika was elected president and Tejdhari Gupta was elected minister in the conference. Apart from this, Tirath Raj Yadav, Joint Minister Mohan Prasad, Publicity Minister Sheikh Imtiaz, Treasurer Govind Prajapati and Office Secretary Antaral Kharwar and a 15-member executive were elected on the Vice President.

The conference was presided over by the councilors of Pipri, Mallar Devi, Tirath Yadav and Tej Dhari Gupta and coordinated by Kripa Shankar Panika. The conference was attended by Ravi Gupta, President of Electricity Employees Union, Pipri, Com. D’s leader Krishna Yadav, District President of Yuva Manch Ruby Singh Gond, Savita Gond, Dwarika Chandravanshi etc addressed.

Workers representatives from Anpara Obra Lanco, Hindalco, Grasim Chemical Plant, Grasim Cement, Coal Mining etc were present in the conference. Artists of Mandar Kala Manch and folk singer Muneshwar Panika presented their mass songs in the conference.

Positive to witness representatives of workers from a diverse range in the meet.

Harsh Thakor is a freelance journalist who has covered mass movements around the country.

Courtesy: https://countercurrents.org

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Workers at Yazaki Pvt. Ltd., based in the Bengaluru Rural district, alleged that the company had verbally sacked at least 150 workers in December. The Yazaki plant in Lakkenahalli assembles wire harnesses for Toyota and Maruti cars. The workers said they were not given any termination notice, and their biometric authorisation was revoked. Around 50 workers were allegedly fired on December 13, following which another 100 workers were sacked the next day. There are 2,000 employees in the Lakkenahalli plant. The workers are being assisted by the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), which filed a memorandum with the Deputy Labour Commissioner (DLC) and educated workers about their rights and entitlements. They commenced a protest for reinstatement on Monday and are determined to continue until their objectives are met.

A sacked worker who wished to remain unnamed said he had worked at the company for five years. He started working at the Jigani plant, after which he was asked to shift to the Lakkenahalli plant outside Bengaluru city limits.

“I have been working at the Jigani plant since 2018. A few months ago, there was a change in management, and we were asked to shift to Lakkenahalli. It is very far away, so we initially refused. They promised a room and two meals daily if we agreed to shift. They also promised wage hikes. However, they did not fulfil any of their promises. My last salary was around Rs 11,000/month. It has remained unchanged for five years. On December 13, around 50 workers could not punch out after their shift ended. They were informed that their employment was terminated. The next day, some of us felt insecure about our employment status when we saw how our colleagues were dismissed. After our shift ended, we sat down inside the premises and refused to leave until we received some assurances from the management.”

However, the management did not meet them. Instead, the police were called. The workers allege that the police took photographs of the workers who had sat down on the spot. Another worker who wished to remain unnamed said that shortly after the police took the photographs of the workers, they were all sacked. At least 60 of the sacked workers are women.

Most of the sacked workers had completed training courses at Industrial Training Institutes (ITI). They had different trade certificates such as fitter, electrician, mechanic etc. Some among them also hold diplomas in electrical engineering. Before their termination, they were not unionised. However, they have started a Yazaki workers unit under the Karnataka General Labour Union. Around 100 laid-off workers joined the union.

Chandrashekhar, head of HR at the Yazaki plant, provided a statement to NewsClick about the termination of workers. Speaking on the phone, he said, “We have removed employees as per an agreement we have with them. We have recruited them under the Apprenticeship Act. We can give them training for up to three years. During that period, we can remove them anytime. Some political people are involved in the protests, and now, they are claiming permanent employment. The (terminated) operators told us that they are being forced to join the protests.”

When asked why they were not given a termination notice, he said it was not required.

“We provided mail communication to their HODs three days before termination. We are not required to give any notice to the workers. We were forced to fire some people because the business is down at the moment.”

While the workers believe there is a change in management, Chandrashekhar confirmed that that was not the case. The plant was shifted from Jigani to Lakkenahalli, but the management remains the same.

Maitreyi Krishnan of AICCTU condemns the use of apprentices for core production. She says, “Apprentices act was brought to provide short-term training to workers. It’s being abused by employers to deny job security and decent wages to people who are involved in core production. This practice has also been observed and criticised by the courts. Moreover, under section 25(n) of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947, you have to follow a certain procedure for layoffs. You need to take permission from the labour department and give workers at least three months of notice. This has not been done.”

Courtesy: Newsclick

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Mr B.T. Ranadive, well-known trade union and CPM leader, passed away this month 30 years ago in 1990. I still remember walking in the heat as part of his funeral procession from the CITU office in Worli to Dadar. It was an unusually long procession.

Trade unions still held a strong position in society then. But even back then, the mainstream media was not very supportive. I recall covering a well-attended,  CITU conference at the Shanmukhananda hall, Matunga.  Yet, the day after the inaugural session, the Times of India where I worked, did not carry any report. The TOI had a strong CITU union at the time. I think someone spoke to chairman Ashok Jain and subsequently a report appeared.

In the  subsequent era of neoliberalism, union busting became common, it became fashionable among intellectuals to run down the struggle for workers’ rights. Of course, they were handsomely rewarded for their loyalty to the establishment and for their betrayal of people. The most naked example at the government level was the Exit Policy in the nineties which favoured a hire and fire policy. For some years there was not even a cabinet rank labour minister in the state. There used to be a lower rank minister with the status of minister with independent charge.

But then the stark visuals of  the trek  of  long lines of migrant labour from different parts of the country worked like an eye opener. The harsh reality (of their lives) could no longer be ignored. 

It was good to see the bow tie wearing columnist and television interviewer express so much sympathy for workers in a recent interview with an academic. Mr Karan Thapar has changed so much for the better in the last few years. There is a sea change in public perception of labour: we seem suddenly to have become aware of their version of the  tragedy, the problems they face and their overall exploitation.

This is  an interesting phenomenon on the eve of May Day, traditionally a day of assertion of working class solidarity.  There is now the very real possibility of a solidarity being built with other sections as well. Every one is going to be hit now with the exception of the one percent who have fattened themselves at our expense and who pose a serious threat to democracy. Unfortunately, this is also a sad time as there is massive unemployment already and wages are being cut. 

There are various historical versions and accounts around the origin of May Day. Rosa Luxemberg, the renowned radical thinker has said the struggle to attain the eight-hour day was first born in Australia. The workers there decided, in 1856, to organise a day of complete stoppage together with meetings and entertainment as a demonstration in favor of the eight-hour day. The day chosen for this celebration was to be April 21. At first, the Australian workers intended this only for that year, that is 1856. But the first celebration had such a strong effect on the proletarian masses of Australia, enlivening them and leading to new agitation, that it was decided to repeat the celebration every year.

In fact, what could give the workers greater courage and faith in their own strength than a mass work stoppage on which they had decided themselves? What could give more courage to the eternal slaves of the factories and the workshops than the mustering of their own troops? Thus, the idea of a proletarian celebration was quickly and widely accepted and, from Australia, began to spread to other countries until finally it had conquered the whole proletarian world.

The first to follow the example of the Australian workers were the Americans. In 1886 they decided that May 1 should be the day of universal work stoppage. On this day 200,000 of them left their work and demanded the eight-hour day. Later, police and legal harassment prevented the workers for many years from repeating this demonstration. However in 1888 they renewed their decision and decided that the next celebration would be May 1, 1890.

The movement grew stronger over the next few decades

(There have been minor edits made to the original)­

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After receiving a letter from ten Indian labour unions raising concerns over the changing labour laws scenario in India, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has taken serious cognizance and has appealed to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi regarding the same.

In its response to the letter sent by the trade unions, the ILO has urged PM Modi to send a clear message to Central and state governments to uphold the country’s international commitments and encourage engagement in effective social dialogue. This letter has come in response to the last joint letter sent by trade unions, dated May 14.

In the latest letter written by well known trade unions like INTUC, AITUC and CITU, dated May 25, it has been brought to the notice of ILO, the “retrograde anti-labour exercise of the Government of India towards virtual nullification of most of the substantive laws in vogue in the country”. In this complaint, dated May 25, a list of states and how they have made amends to their labour laws within their respective jurisdictions has been specified. There is mention of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Assam, Bihar and Karnataka.

The complaint also emphasizes that Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat were suspending, among other laws, the Trade union Act, 1926 as well as Industrial Disputes Act which impinge on right to freedom of association and right to strike, respectively. Bringing the liability on the central government, the letter states that “Central Govt. had discussed on labour issues with Industry Associations in four groups in different dates from April 3rd to10th,2020 who have asked the Government to stall all trade union activities,” and it was on the insistence of Central government that state governments have taken these steps.

The complaint further states that state governments in connivance with the Centre have taken undue advantage of the lockdown “when no industrial action by workers is possible”. The letter also draws ILO’S attention to the violations of “Philadelphia Declaration of ILO” as well as ILO ‘Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up’ of 1998 caused due to these unwarranted labour reforms. The letter also calls out the government’s inaction towards protecting migrant workers whose exodus to their respective home states led to many deaths, while they were entitled to be protected under the Inter State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979. The letter blames it on “tardy implementation, rather non-implementation of the provisions of this Act by the Governments, both at the state and the centre”.

The joint letter of trade unions dated May 25,

The response from ILO can be read here.

Related:

UP gov’t invokes ESMA, prohibits strikes for next six months
New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) demands that governments retract changes in labour laws
Battle against dilution of labour laws to culminate in Supreme Court?

The post ILO raises deep concern over recent trend of labour law reforms, asks PM to engage with states appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In what has set back welfare and rights of workers, by a century, if not more, two of the largest states in India have left lakhs of workers at the mercy of their employers. 

On Wednesday, the Yogi Adityanath led Uttar Pradesh government passed an ordinance exempting businesses from the purview of almost all labour laws. This exemption is valid for the next three years and, according to the UP government this has been done to help industries that have been slowed down or shutdowns in the wake of the sudden  national lockdown announced in March to try and slow down the spread of Coronavirus Pandemic in India. 

The UP government issued a press statement citing their reasons for passing the  ‘Uttar Pradesh Temporary Exemption from Certain Labour Laws Ordinance, 2020’. “The horticultural and economic activities in the states have been severely affected and slowed down due to the outbreak of Covid-19. This is because businesses and economic activities came to a halt more or less due to the national lockdown,” a press statement issued by the state government said. 

The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has called this move “barbarous”. Strongly denouncing the ordinance, the CITU has said this will only enable factory and business owners “to impose conditions of slavery on the working people”. It is the workers, the labourers, who are suffering the most in the Coronavirus lockdown and have faced job loss, starvation, and even death. Now they will also have to work under altered circumstances where the factory and industry owner can dictate terms and conditions.

These workers are the ones creating wealth for the country said CITU, and they are the ones “simultaneously suffering from brutal exploitation and loot by the capitalists and big-business.” The CITU has called upon the all trade unions “irrespective of affiliations”, and “working people in general to unite and resist this barbarous and brutal machination on their rights and livelihood both at workplace level and at state and national level through determined united struggle.”

The potential for exploitation of labourers is massive with the laws now diluted. As explained by a report in the Business Standard all business establishments, and factories etc. only have to follow these three labour laws, for the next three years: Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996, Workmen Compensation Act, 1923, Bonded Labour Act, 1976 and Section 5 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 (the right to receive timely wages) will be valid in the state. 

All the other labour laws will become defunct. In UP this will apply to existing and new industries and factories. 

A similar move in favour of business and factory owners has been announced In Madhya Pradesh too. On Thursday MP  Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that his government will exempt new manufacturing units from almost all provisions they have to follow and comply with under the Factories Act, 1948 for nearly three years. A “1000 days” he said. According to the new report these labour law exemptions in Madhya Pradesh, will allow more factories to operate without following safety and health norms. They will also allow the factory, and business owners to employ, and use the services of labourers as they wish. This exception now awaits a nod from the Union government.

As news reports remind us day after day, migrant labourers who moved to work across the country, and workers who have stayed in their home states have already been subjected to inhuman sufferings in the nearly 50 days of the national Lockdown 2020. Many of them undertook long marches home to escape the hostile environment of the cities they built. They were already living in difficult conditions even before the danger of Coronavirus pandemic hit, and things just got worse as they were the first to lose jobs, wages, face eviction and hunger. 

The workers were reduced to “non-entities by the profit-hungry employers’ class in the process of 45 days lockdown, the Govt of the day at the centre has pounced upon those working people only with fangs and claws to reduce them to the stature of virtual slaves,” stated CITU  General Secretary Tapan Sen.  

According to the trade union, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led, or  “compliant state governments” are the ones to have started this cruel exercise. “The BJP led Gujarat Govt pioneered to unilaterally expand the daily-working hours from eight hours to 12 hours without lawful compensation as per Factories Act ,while the governments of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh followed suit. Subsequently the state governments in Punjab and Rajasthan are reported to issue similar notification increasing daily working hours to 12 hours, obviously at the dictate of the corporate class and the Govt of Tripura and Maharashtra also are reportedly moving in the same direction,” stated CITU.

In Madhya Pradesh the Chief Minister’s decision  exempts employers from “ obligations under various labour laws like  Factories Act, Madhya Pradesh Industrial Relations Act and Industrial Disputes Act, Contract Labour Act etc  through appropriate amendments by executive order or Ordinance for a period of 1000 days, i.e., three years empowering the employers to hire and fire workers “at their convenience”. 

In effect, the labour department cannot intervene, or address any  establishments for the next two and a half months or so. “Not only that, the employers were also exempted from payment of Rs 80/- per labourer to Madhya Pradesh Labour Welfare Board” said CITU.

The UP government has justified this move as one which will “give employment” to the migrant workers who are now headed back to their home state on special trains. “The idea is that in the present circumstances where we need to provide employment to workers who have migrated back to the state and to protect the existing employment, some flexibility has to be given to business and industry,” Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary RK Tiwari was quoted by Business Standard and added that, “some” labour laws have been kept intact and “they will continue to be protected”. 

According to news reports the BJP-led Govt of Tripura has also proposed increasing daily working hours to 12 hours, “and also to permit hire and fire of workers as per convenience of the employers in all establishments employing up to 300 workers”.

Uttar Pradesh was the first State to announce that it will bring back all migrant labourers who wished to retun home, from other parts of India.  But as reported in The Hindu, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been asked by the CMs of  Punjab, Karnataka, Haryana and Gujarat to “prevent flight of labour” back to their home state.

According to this news report CM Adityanath “received calls from the four Chief Ministers assuring him that migrant labour from his State needn’t leave and would be taken care of as a graded exit from the lockdown now looms.”

The  Chief Ministers are “worried that economic revival in their States, post lockdown, would be hampered as more and more labour left their borders,” said the news report.  The labourers, and workers, meanwhile, wait to hear from political leaders who are yet to make any substantial announcement assuring them that their rights will be protected above all.

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Image Courtesy: ncronline.org

What is slowly becoming clear about the nationwide lockdown in India is not just it’s utterly shoddy planning and execution but also the political leadership’s disconnect with the working people of India. It reflects a dismal understanding of the functioning of the economy in general, and political economy in particular.  

Additionally, it also seems to betray a poor grasp of how urban India functions and the crucial role of migrant labor in the economic life of cities. The operation of India’s urban centers is intimately tied to its rural areas. The current crisis with the migrant labor trying to escape from urban migrant-hubs brings into stark view the reality of the composition of the urban economy. 

On the whole, then, one could conclude that by not taking India’s informal economy into consideration, the policy makers either do not comprehend the key features of the Indian economy or just chose to ignore it. 

What this piece wishes to address is the following: one, it wishes to look at the decision-making related to the countrywide lockdown, as it seemed to unfold; second, it wishes to examine more closely that which is being projected as a foregone conclusion, the Hobson’s choice between lives and livelihoods. 

Many decisions may be very complex and it may be especially difficult to anticipate all consequences beforehand. In the South Asian context, we have the instance of the Partition of the subcontinent that even today is not a closed case, in terms of its continuing trauma and divisive influences. 

Several of India’s much admired leaders associated with the anti-colonial freedom struggle were around when the decision was effected and it was obvious from later reports that none of them had foreseen the scale of the mayhem that unfolded. A socialist leader like Ram Manohar Lohia penned a tract called “The Guilty Men of India’s Partition” some years after the event, incriminating several of those leaders on whose watch the bloody event of Partition took place. 

Despite the complexity, there are some simple questions that can be asked of any decision, especially the ‘when’ and the ‘how’ questions: When was a decision taken (too late, too early, right time etc) and what was the manner in which it was taken (hastily, with or without consultation, with adequate preparation and notice etc). 

In this case, the ‘when’ and the ‘how’ questions seek to uncover the sequence and manner of the imposition of the lockdown. They seek to penetrate the fog of inevitability and unassailability which surround such decisions which are made in certain extenuating circumstances. This is especially so when the decisions have resulted in deep and wide suffering to a section of India’s most vulnerable population. 

Much of the justification for the decisions taken recently regarding the lockdown is based on the grounds of saving lives as against and over saving livelihoods. An Indian economist chose to defend the government’s decision in an article titled “India chose to protect lives, not livelihoods. And that’s a good thing.” 

However, an Italian study the economist quotes in support of the assertions in the article clearly states that, “While something a little short of the hypothetical radical lockdown is still likely to work, after a certain threshold of social interaction – which, unfortunately, we do not know – any choices would likely yield the second scenario in terms of human losses, without avoiding the economic costs of the lockdown itself.”

So, the chances that a complete lockdown will be effective depends on when it is put in place; after a certain, yet undermined “threshold of social interaction,” there is no telling if the fatal effects of covid-19 can be avoided.

Something similar was expressed by a former head in the ICMR, Dr. T. Jacob John, as reported in the Economic TImes on Mar 23: 

“The decision to bring life at a standstill is a good decision, but I’m not sure we have bought time for our people…We are still two steps behind the virus — ideally, this step should have been taken a week ago, that way we could’ve stopped the outbreak’s inward journey into heartland India.”

More recently, economist Deepankar Basu, also expressed concern regarding the timing of the complete lockdown in a piece titled “COVID-19 in India: Has Window of Opportunity Opened by Dip in Daily Growth Rates Closed?” 

Social distancing and lockdowns can only slow down the spread of the epidemic, they cannot stop it. Sophisticated epidemiological models show that once the lockdown is lifted, as it must be, and once social distancing measures are loosened, as would probably need to be done in a few weeks, the number of cases can rapidly rise again.

The manner in which the total lockdown was implemented bears some interrogation and questioning as to its timing, chronology and preparation.

From the sequence of events, we know that on Thu Mar 19, the prime minister Narendra Modi appeared before the Indian public on national TV and broached the idea of a Janta Curfew. He presented it as a sort of a wartime exercise: “This Janata Curfew will in a way be a litmus test for us. This is also the time to see how prepared India is to fight off a global pandemic like the coronavirus.” 

Thus, the Janta curfew, announced on a Thursday, was to take place four days later on a Sunday, for a fixed time-period of 7am-9pm, and was ostensibly a means to gauge the country’s preparedness. There was no sense of an official curfew with penalties attached (at least none were spelled out). It was more of a good-faith exercise in following some stay-at-home orders. The PM did not lay out any concrete plans beyond the Janta curfew. 

All he said, without elaboration, was, “I need some of your upcoming weeks.” What did that mean, exactly? Did he have to be cryptic and skimp on specifics? This becomes important when he later announced the complete lockdown, because on that occasion he stated that he had informed people about a lockdown in the previous Thursday’s address, as encapsulated in his request then for “some of your upcoming weeks.”

However, two points are noteworthy about the Janta Curfew – and its conclusion. First: despite no advance notice about the steps following the conclusion of the Janta Curfew, many cities and states imposed their own lockdowns right after the end of the Janta Curfew. How this was publicly communicated is still not clear; most people, including the author of this piece, received intimation from friends through social media. 

Second: on Monday morning, Mar 22, the PM Modi tweeted, “Many people are still not taking the lockdown seriously.” Which lockdown was he referring to? He announced the country-wide lockdown only the next day, on Tuesday evening 8PM – and by all accounts, that announcement was a surprise for people. Was there another national lockdown that was announced that Modi was referring to but most people did not know about?

If people already knew on Monday that they were under a continuing lockdown after the Janta Curfew, why was the Janta curfew announced as a bounded stay-in, between 7am-9pm on Sunday? Did the PM tell people that at the conclusion of the Janta curfew there would be other lockdowns following, which would be rigorously enforced? 

It does not seem so. In fact, the PM made the Janta Curfew into a Sunday-Holiday kind of family activity day, by encouraging people to come out on their balconies and join in a national musical brass-band of sorts, thus attempting to inject a lets-practise-this-playfully mood. 

Taking up the ‘how’ question next, we see that in addition to questions of preparedness, it also includes within its scope the centralized decision-making which operates on the basis of “executive powers,” bypassing the legislature.

 Narendra Modi’s lockdown announcement, affecting the entire country, is an example of such executive decision-making without consulting the parliament. It seems almost a futile exercise at this stage to go into the legality of the use of executive powers, given the way they were used to abrogate Article 370 in Kashmir. 

That seems to be the drift of one of the more comprehensive pieces on the constitutionality of the lockdown announcement, titled Is the National Lockdown in India Constitutionally Valid? The piece informs us that the center would probably cite the Epidemic Diseases Act and the Disaster Management Act to respond to any  issues of legality and constitutionality of the decision. 

In reference to the suppression of rights such decisions entail, the article cites an American legal scholar discussing legal rights with reference to the lockdown in the US, especially in times of exigencies, and how the common people abdicate their rights:  “[W]hile the constitutional validity of the lockdown in the United States is doubtful, it has bipartisan support and people, scared out of their wits, are also willing to voluntarily sacrifice their rights.”

However, the greater point is that the bypassing of the parliament can hardly be explained, even theoretically, when no political party had threatened any sort of veto on the government’s earlier dummy shutdown, the decoy Janta curfew. Still, the government decided on unilateral decision-making, in a way asking the people to trust in its abilities of foresight, planning and provisioning. 

Given its past record of unilateral decision making, especially in the case of demonetization and also the recent lockdown of Kashmir, both of which caused untold and largely unrecorded hardship to the common people, their self-righteous requests for trust in their wisdom does not evoke too much confidence.

Both the ‘when’ and the ‘how’ questions about the lockdown also bring up questions urgently on the economic preparedness going into the lockdown. It is not as though the PM was not aware of the shock to the economy and livelihoods. 

In his speech in which he announced the Janta Curfew, the prime minister made people aware of the economic difficulties that were looming and announced an economic taskforce to deal with them. “This global pandemic is also going to have a wide-ranging impact on the economy. Keeping in mind the economic challenges arising from the coronavirus, the government has decided to set up a Covid-19 Economic Response Taskforce under the leadership of the finance minister,” as reported in the Economic Times.

His statement following the above, describing the responsibilities of the taskforce, reveals how poorly the functioning of the taskforce was conceived – and, as evidence has it, executed: “This taskforce will take decisions in the near future, based on regular interactions and feedback from all stakeholders, and analysis of all situations and dimensions. This taskforce will also ensure that all steps taken to reduce the economic difficulties are effectively implemented.”

The taskforce quite obviously was quite clueless on the impact on the informal economy that sustains India’s cities and towns, as the enormous suffering to the migrant workers ever since has amply and irrefutably demonstrated. 

All it needed was knowledge of and expertise in dealing with the effects of the lockdown on the informal sectors of the economy, in which the migrant labor contributed and on which they depended for their survival. But, sadly, an intimate knowledge of the world of migrant workers and a well-thought out handling of the disruption to their lives was nowhere in evidence. 

According to an International Labor Organization (ILO) report as presented in a The Wire piece, “Close to 81% of all employed persons in India make a living by working in the informal sector, with only 6.5% in the formal sector and 0.8% in the household sector.”

As shown by economists like Amit Basole, and Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty, income inequality “exploded” in India after the 1980s. As the latter put it,  “From the perspective or our newly income inequality dataset, ‘Shining India’ corresponds to the top 10 percent of the population (approximately 80 million adult individuals in 2014) rather than the middle 40 percent.” 

In terms of income of the workers in the informal sector, another report stated that:

[T]he Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2017-18 reveals, the informal and self-employed workers are far behind the salaried class on income…The report also showed that in urban areas, the share of self-employment is 32.4 per cent. Self-employment was also the major source of income for 52.2 per cent of rural households. But, a majority of self-employed workers earned roughly ₹8,000 a month, lowest in the income bracket.

As is also well known in India and globally, the “informalization” of jobs has been a rapid feature of economies. As one paper puts it, 

[S]ince the initiation of economic reforms in 1991, there has been a tendency to employ contract workers at the expense of regular workers and outsource the production. On the basis of the Annual survey of Industry (ASI) data also, it is shown that the share of contract workers in total employment of the manufactured sector has increased during 2000-01 to 2008-09…The share of contract workers in organized manufacturing has increased to 34 percent in 2010-11 from about 10 percent in early 1990s, 14 percent in 1995-96 and 20 percent in 2000-01.

As another recent piece on the future of India’s political economy observes, 

It needs to be remembered, even with all the migration and informal work, the vast majority of Indians can barely make ends meet. Almost half the total consumption expenditure of average Indians was spent on food items in 2011-12. This share is significantly higher for the bottom half of the population…Such a high share of consumption expenditure on food also means that a large number of workers lead a hand-to-mouth existence in the country, and will find it very difficult to even get two square meals a day if their daily work is disrupted.

The “lives versus livelihoods” distinction might be a false distinction in the case of those for whom livelihoods mean (the barest continuance of) life – or for the most basic process of the production and reproduction of life, to borrow Marx’s language. When Parle-G is worried about reduced demand for its cheap biscuits, a staple for labor looking for a quick dose of glucose , maybe the country has to sit up and notice.

As researcher Shankar Ramaswami records a worker commenting on a co-worker’s death in an academic paper on lives of contract labor in Delhi, in a chapter titled ‘Death of a mazdur (wage worker)’: “Mazdur admi ka koi thikana nahim hota [There’s no telling when something can happen to a worker]’, a polisher observed, intimating an awareness that proletarian lives are precarious, uncertain, and vulnerable.”

A distinction between lives and livelihoods probably holds true for the more affluent classes with some sort of “disposable incomes,” and the luxury of assets and savings. For them livelihoods represent not merely the provision of life’s barest necessities but something else beyond; maybe some forms of comfort and luxuries. 

Many among them are the ones who can afford to indulge in “conspicuous consumption.” They are able to give up their jobs voluntarily and then do what their heart desires, like travel, for example. They are the ones who can sit out a lockdown or a forced shutdown even without everyday income. It is for them that issues such as “cabin fever,” “Netflix watching lists,” “Book reading lists,” and “rebroadcasts of television serials” makes sense. 

As migrants on the road have stated over and over again recently, not working and earning a wage means death to them, especially if they have to live in expensive migrant-hubs. So, they try to get home where they might have some sort of a support system in order to survive. 

In an unreflective and an uncritical reading of the rush of the migrants to get back home, we the more fortunate ones are not able to gauge the desperation and the drive behind the path they undertake. Sure, we are outraged and deeply affected by the arduous journey they attempt to undertake. 

But what few of us can discern and feel is the grim reality in their minds of those being left with no choice but to seek out a path to ensure survival. 

Each death out of exhaustion while on the road points to the reality that the migrants were anyway staring at – they were leaving behind death, they were walking home to where they thought they might have a chance of survival, but not unaware of the fact that they could probably perish on the journey itself. 

We have seen images of such straggly, tired lines of people walking not too long ago, with bundles on their heads, holding their near-ones’ hands, as though fused into a diorama of suffering and helplessness. Images from around the time of the nation’s independence, to be more accurate. Their lives too were rent asunder by forces seemingly larger than them, by decisions they did not comprehend, by an illness that infected millions. They too were left with no choice but to join a flight for survival. 

The rush at bus stations like Anand Vihar in Delhi or the line of people already on the roads is not some festival-season holiday rush, as for Holi or Chath puja. The forced trek is also not some religiously-inspired pilgrimage either like that of the kanwariyas, though it often traverses similar routes. 

Earlier this year, some state officials in UP showered rose petals on the kanwariyas from the air, at public expense. The migrants – they were showered with lathis – and chemical spray. 

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In a shot in the arm for labour rights, the Maharashtra Commissioner of Labour has issued a circular directing all public as well as private sector organisations not to terminate services of employees and workers due to their inability to report to work at the workplace due to the Covid-19 outbreak related quarantine measures. The circular also forbids reduction in wages and salaries due to the same.

The social distancing measures put in place to check the spread of the Corona Virus epidemic also included suspension of construction projects in many areas. Most construction workers are daily wagers who depend on cash ever day to put food on the table. They are largely migrant workers who move from one project site to another and live in makeshift shanties nearby. In the absence of daily wages starvation is a stark possibility for them.

Then there are of course middle-class, white-collar workers from IT, finance and other service sectors. They are all working from home. Some are permanent employees, others work on contract. They all have fixed expenses as well as EMIs, that require a monthly influx of fresh funds in the bank via their salaries. By addressing both the public sector as well as the private sector, the Labour Commissioner has attempted to allay the fears of workers and employees from various socio-economic groups.

On Sunday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also passed similar orders while announcing a statewide lockdown. Kejriwal said, “Private offices will remain shut, but employees, both permanent and contract workers, are to be considered on duty and should be paid.”

The circular issued by Maharashtra Labour Commissioner Dr. Mahendra Kalyankar may be read here: 

Related:

Lives of the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in the times of Corona
Covid-19 Update: Delhi under lockdown, Mumbai lockdown extended
Covid-19: West Bengal goes under lockdown from 5 PM today
Covid-19: What happens to prisoners, now?

The post Covid-19: Maha Labour Commissioner forbids organisations from firing, reducing wages of workers appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) have brought together the nation to agitate against the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) divisive policies. In Assam, where the NRC had already been implemented, 19 lakh people were rendered to be ‘stateless’, with the burden of proof being on them to prove themselves to be the citizens of India.

Now, with an all-India NRC on the cards; it will be repeated in Assam again, trade unions and activists say that the worst hit of the entire lot will be the unorganized sector of the country.

What is the strength of the unorganized sector in India?

There have been no conclusive numbers on the strength of the unorganized or informal workforce in India.

The Economic Survey of 2018-19 released in July this year says that in India, “almost 93%” of the workforce is “informal”. In a report – Strategy for New India at 75 by Niti Aayog, the informal sector “by some estimates” is supposed to be employing 85% of all workers. Another report by the National Statistical Commission, 2012 pegs it at “more than 90%” of the total workforce. However, going by the numbers, more than 400 million of the people in India work in the unorganized sector.

Who comes under the unorganized labour force?

According to the Ministry of Labour, GoI, the unorganized labour force is categorized under four groups – occupation, nature of employment, specially distressed categories and service categories.

1. Under Terms of Occupation
   Small and marginal farmers, landless agricultural labourers, share croppers, fishermen, those engaged in animal husbandry, beedi rolling, labelling and packing, building and construction workers, leather workers, weavers, artisans, salt workers, workers in brick kilns and stone quarries, workers in saw mills, oil mills, etc. come under this category.
2. Under Terms of Nature of Employment
   Attached agricultural labourers, bonded labourers, migrant workers, contract and casual labourers come under this category.
3. Under Terms of Specially Distressed Category
   Toddy tappers, scavengers, carriers of head loads, drivers of animal driven vehicles, loaders and unloaders come under this category.
4. Under Terms of Service Category
   Midwives, domestic workers, fishermen and women, barbers, vegetable and fruit vendors, newspaper vendors, etc., belong to this category.

These workers mostly belong to scheduled castes / scheduled tribes and other backward classes and mostly do not possess a permanent residential address, birth or school certificates and find it difficult to apply for voter IDs and Aadhaar identification numbers.

Last year, informing the Parliament about how many people were issued the Aadhaar Card, KJ Alphons, the Minister of State for Electronics and IT, said that more than 89% of the total population had been granted the same.

In 2019, India had around 900 million eligible voters, with 95.64% having a photo identity card.

While the government planned to offer benefits like insurance and pension to over 40 crore unorganized workers using the Aadhaar, it hasn’t made it clear whether the biometric identifier or the voter IDs will be regarded as proof of citizenship.

During the Assam NRC, the basic criteria to appear in the NRC list was that the name of the applicant’s family members had to either be in the first NRC prepared in 1951 or in the electoral rolls up to March 24, 1971.

Other than that, applicants also had the option to present documents such as refugee registration certificate, birth certificate, LIC policy, land and tenancy records, citizenship certificate, passport, government issued license or certificate, bank/post office accounts, permanent residential certificate, government employment certificate, educational certificate and court records.

However, it must be noted that 19 lakh citizens were left out of the Assam NRC and scores were wrongly dubbed ‘foreigners’ or ‘illegal immigrants’ even after producing the required proofs.

Who face document woes and why

According to a report by Down to Earth, in India 95 percent (195 million) women were employed in the unorganized sector or engaged in unpaid labour.

Deccan Herald reported that according to Garment Labour Union President Rukmini VP, women are still finding it difficult to enroll for Aadhaar because more than one document is required for address proof. “Migrants often find it difficult to produce them, as their homes are in other states,” she said, urging the government to stop imposing multiple citizenship proofs.

The SC, ST and OBCs have historically been kept away from education and property ownership and they are all set to be affected said city-based advocate S Balan who works for the welfare of purakarmikas and daily wage labourers.

He also said that at the APMC market in Bengaluru itself, over 3,000 headloaders don’t have any documents, not even voter IDs.

Minorities affected

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Pvt Ltd, out of the 400 odd million people in India employed in the labour force, 39 million are Muslims. A little more than a hundred million muslims are in the working age bracket in India, i.e. they are of 15 years of age or more. Of these, 42.3 million actually participate in the labour markets by either working or looking for work.

Muslim women have a lesser participation in the labour force, compared to other faiths. Out of the 39 million, 36.5 million are men and only 2.5 million are women. Some households have only one working member, mostly a male and if that person has to run from pillar to prove to gather documents, his household is bound to suffer extreme financial losses.

Women

The NRC process in Assam saw many women being left out of the list. Women from poorer backgrounds were excluded due to lack of documents. It was not compulsory in Assam to register birth or deaths until 1985. The NRC process does not recognise this. Several women were married off they turned 18, so their name will not be on the voter list along with their parents.

With no awareness of the NRC process and emotional and financial dependency on the patriarch, coupled with practices like early marriage and the dwindling girl-child education robs them of their valid identity proofs. Most of the women in rural areas or conservative households do not register for voter identity cards.

Without educational degrees and land documents, women don’t possess independent identity documents which makes them particularly vulnerable to the NRC process.

Dalits and Tribal Communities

The rampant illiteracy and lack of awareness of maintaining documents is going to affect the Dalits and the tribal communities of India. A Delhi-based rights lawyer had claimed that in the Assam NRC over 100,000 Scheduled Tribes who were original inhabitants of Assam were left out of the list due to the inability to prove their legacy from 1971.

Overall, the NRC is set to hit the poor the most especially with them running from pillar to post, gathering documents and facing undue harassment from authorities. The NRC process to the exchequer itself may cost over Rs. 50,000 crore in administration expenses, Rs. 2 – 3 lakh crore to construct detention camps and Rs. 36,000 to take care of the citizens who will face a future in detention camps (National Herald).

According to The Times of India, the cost of reclaiming citizenship will go up to Rs. 50,000 per person. In Assam, people left out of the NRC spend Rs. 7,836 crore for hearings.

Will the economically crippled labour of India be able to bear the cost of the NRC if and when it does hit the country especially when over 22 percent of the country’s population is below the poverty line?

Related:

Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019: The Fire that consumes India
CPI(M) set to push for changes in CAB, terms it a ‘two nation theory’
NPR 2020 to cost close to Rs. 4,000 crores; Centre silent on connection to NRC

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