She walks half-a-kilometre from her house, in Pacharla village, and collects three pots of clean drinking water which she uses for cooking and cleaning at the Anganwadi centre.

Once done with the chore, she hurriedly returns to clean the house, take a bath and make tea. She also cooks and packs her lunch of rice and curry before setting out for the Anganwadi centre again, mostly by 8.30 am.

By 9 am, the Anganwadi helper assembles slum dwellers’ children aged between seven months and six years and makes them sit for preschool activities. Earlier, no one was interested in tending to the children from lower castes due to the rigid caste system. As Mahboobi showed willingness, she managed to get the job.

Mahboobi immerses herself in work till 4 pm—boiling milk and eggs for 25 children, cooking nutritious food for them as well as the pregnant/lactating mothers visiting the centre, doing dishes, cleaning the premises and putting the tiny tots to sleep after their lunch at 12 pm.

Every child gets 120 ml of milk and an egg daily. However, the hard work she puts in does not match her monthly honorarium of Rs 7,800.

“I joined the Anganwadi centre in 2007, two years after my husband died. I was paid nothing in the first two years. Finally, some relief from the financial stress came when I started receiving a monthly honorarium of Rs 4,500 in 2009,” says Mahboobi, who sold betel leaves to raise her two sons and three daughters.

With her children moving out after marriage, she now lives alone. Her biggest fear is that she will not receive gratuity on retirement. “My salary will not be enough to deal with the future, including diseases,” she frets.

Nothing comes without a fight

At every protest, Anganwadi teachers and helpers raise their voices seeking gratuity. They seek recognition as full-time government employees, who get wages under the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, not honorarium.

An Anganwadi teacher is paid Rs 12,000 per month, which translates to Rs 460 a day. Similarly, a helper’s daily wage is Rs 300. The Central and state governments contribute in the ratio of 60:40 to pay them. Sadly, the honorariums are no match for the minimum wage of Rs 800 a daily wager receives in Telangana.

An Anganwadi helper in front of her hut in the Jogulamba Gadwal district of Telangana. A helper’s daily wage is only Rs 300.

The Telangana Anganwadi Teachers and Helpers Union (affiliated to CITU) has been demanding Anganwadi teachers be paid Rs 26,000 and helpers Rs 20,000. The union will launch an indefinite strike on September 11 to make the state government fulfil its demands, which include retirement benefits of Rs 10 lakh to teachers and Rs 5 lakh to helpers.

A landmark Supreme Court (SC) judgement on April 25 last year raised their hopes. The SC observed that Anganwadi workers and helpers were entitled to gratuity under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 and directed the disbursal of gratuity to all eligible employees within three months with 10% simple interest.

The apex court also noted that Anganwadis worked are an arm of government and take responsibility for the proper implementation of the Right to Education Act and the National Food Security Act.

In a bid to firefight and find a loophole, the Telangana government recently announced financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh to retiring Anganwadi teachers and Rs 50,000 to mini Anganwadi teachers and helpers. It also raised the retirement age of Anganwadi teachers and helpers from 57 to 65 years.

Notably, the term ‘gratuity’ was not used for the financial assistance, which will be a much bigger sum than the amount announced. For example, if a helper’s last drawn salary is Rs 7,800 and she has completed 30 years of service, the gratuity contribution would be Rs 1,35,000. For an Anganwadi teacher with similar experience, the gratuity contribution comes to Rs 2,07,692.

There are 34,148 Anganwadi centres across Telangana with each supposed to have a teacher and helper. However, only 33,843 teachers and 27,990 helpers are on duty with the remaining posts vacant.

No job security, health cards

Being the torchbearers of government education and health schemes under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), the compensation for their critical work does not match the importance of their roles. Health cards, pension and job security are still unattainable for the predominantly female Anganwadi workforce. They have also been seeking more budget allocation for the ICDS.
The lack of money or health cards needed for treatment leads to deaths at times. Padma Kolas (46), an Anganwadi helper from Maddulapalli village, in Khammam Rural mandal, died of dengue, leaving two children below eight. Similarly, cases where funerals got delayed due to want of money have also been reported.

Boya Manikyamma (55) is an Anganwadi helper at the Comprehensive Women Child Welfare Development Anganwadi Centre in Jyotinagar 2 of Khairatabad mandal, Hyderabad district.

“This is my 26th year of service. I have leg and back ache. Officials say we can take voluntary retirement if we want. But how can I leave with empty hands? How shall I live after retirement?” says Manikyamma, who stays with one of her three children.

Boya Manikyamma, an Anganwadi helper at the Comprehensive Women Child Welfare Development Anganwadi Centre in Jyotinagar 2, Khairatabad mandal, Hyderabad district, listens to an ICDS class.

The nutritional status of women and children in the state has improved through the concerted efforts of Anganwadi workers though it has not achieved the target to reduce anaemia. The percentages of underweight children under three years and anaemic pregnant women are still high. As a result, reduction of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) continues to be a challenge.

A Press Information Bureau release dated February 8, 2022, shows how IMR in Telangana decreased from 34 in 2015 to 23 in 2019 per 1,000 live births. In fact, Telangana health minister Thanneeru Harish Rao claimed on Twitter last November that the state ranked third in the country in reducing IMR and MMR.

Despite the good work, Anganwadi workers are yet to receive their dues. When they will get it depends mainly on the state and Central government’s willingness to recognise their role as frontline workers in educating the marginalised, ensuring their nutrition and thereby securing their health in the future. Until then, people like Mahboobi and Manikyamma will continue to struggle.

The writer is a Telangana-based freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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Migrant workers in India face severe exploitation at the hands of contractors, a sad reality that became worse during the Covid-19 pandemic. One such migrant worker, Mirchand Sheikh, a mason, did not receive his meagre wages for as long as three months. To help him assert his right to dues, CJP Fellow Mohd. Ripon Sheikh helped him get in touch with local authorities including the Additional Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and eventually the young mason got his dues on November 22, 2021.

For around three months, Mirchand was working in Ranchi, Jharkhand, without wages. His contractor kept putting off the monthly payment of Rs. 5,000 citing money transfer issues. According to the youth, travel expenses included he was due Rs. 20,000 in all.

“After the first month of work, I was told the contractor will pay me later, I have to work till then. After three months, he paid a little money but was yet to pay Rs. 19,000,” said Mirchand Sheikh. His mother is sick and relies on the sole breadwinner’s wages for her medical expenses. Well aware of this, Sheikh did not ask to go back home to Birbhum, West Bengal but repeatedly asked the contractor for the money. “One day, even my father talked to him on call and tried to reason with him. However, the man verbally abused my father as well. He told me he would not pay and that I could do whatever I want,” said Sheikh.

The mason’s local friends advised him to talk to Mohd. Ripon Sheikh, saying, “He will solve the problem in two days!”

 “That’s when I talked to Ripon sir,” he says.

 On learning about what was clearly “mental torture,” CJP Grassroots Fellow Mohd. Ripon Sheikh, who is also a Bangla Sanskruti Manch activist, reached out to local leaders and government officials including the SP, DSP and Additional DIG.

“The officer-in-charge assured me he will solve the matter. Accordingly, he detained the contractor and on Monday, Mirchand got his money,” explained Ripon.

While Mirchand Sheikh is yet to receive Rs. 5,000 still from the employer, the police officer assured him he would get his payment. Sheikh has worked as a migrant worker for nearly five years, said he has never faced such difficulty in getting his dues. However, the youth is not the only one facing such issues. According to Ripon, many migrant workers in the region face similar problems in payment.

“My request to the central and state governments is to open specific offices and helplines for migrant workers. The names have to be officially registered so that they can be easily rescued in case of danger,” said Ripon.

Related:

Carving flowers on wood, and praying for a better future

Silence of the Bauls

Prayers for stability during the festive season

Grassroot Fellowship ft. Ripon Sheikh, Migrant Labourer

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The All-Punjab Anganwadi Workers’ Union called for a state-level protest followed by a march towards Vidhan Bhawan on March 4, 2021 to reiterate long-standing demands of workers, Union President Hargobind Kaur told SabrangIndia.

“The Punjab government treats us like second-class citizens. Home Ministry officials take a long-time meeting with us and even then, they tell us they can’t do anything. It is horrible how they are treating us,” said Hargobind Kaur.

The anganwadi leader talked about how for at least five years, workers have been demanding minimum wages of monthly Rs. 24,000 and Rs. 18,000 for anganwadi workers and helpers respectively. Yet workers only receive Rs. 7,500 per month while neighbouring Haryana pays Rs. 11,000 per month to its workers.

In response, Social Security and Women and Child Development Department Principal Secretary Raji Srivastava told SabrangIndia, “Workers are asking for more wages after referring to payment from other states. We have sent their demands to the finance department. We will address their problems with due consideration.”

Kaur questioned what happened to the money sent by the central government to pay people at anganwadis. Similarly, she pointed out that while pregnant women received as much as Rs. 6,000 cash incentive under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) anganwadi workers and helpers haven’t received their dues for three years. The scheme has now been clubbed with the integrated child development services (ICS) as per the 2021-22 budget considering both schemes “suffered greatly” after the lockdown and closing of Anganwadi centres. The revised estimate for PMMVY – Rs. 1,300 crore for 2020-21 – was barely half of what was initially allocated for the program.

Another demand of the Union is the provision of smart phones as promised in 2012. The Union leader said that the central government has already given the money for the same but the state government has not finished the process.

“The state government has the money but we have no idea how it is being used. The Home Ministry tells us they will talk to the Finance Minister. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister hasn’t met us once,” she said.

Last year, the Union demanded regularisation of their services and payment of creche workers’ salaries along with the above demands. At the time, the government made efforts for the same and paid ex-gratia amounts of Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 50,000 to retired anganwadi workers and helpers respectively.

However, creche workers have not received wages for the last 22 months, said Hargobind. Srivastava said that a statement regarding the same has been sent to the finance department. Further, creches do not have food to feed their children since January 2017, she claimed.

Similarly, anganwadi facilities also have not been upgraded to supply water, efficient toilet services. This despite the fact that anganwadi workers were among the frontline workers during coronavirus.

“After all this, they say anganwadi workers protest too much. That is why we are alive. On March 4, we will assemble in the evening and reiterate our longstanding demands,” said Hargobind Kaur.

When asked about the pending improvements, Srivastava said, “We have taken up a focussed approach to solve these problems since December 2020. Roughly by February 28, there will be 100 percent water supply in anganwadis. Toilets will also be available soon, by March 31.”

Related:

Allahabad HC seeks response from UP Gov’t over Anganwadi Project implementation
Reopen Anganwadi Centres, ensure proper nutrition to women and children: SC
Will Anganwadi workers ever get their due?
Lakhs of anganwadi workers observe ‘Lalkar Diwas’

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The complete order may be read here.

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The Supreme Court, on June 4, passed an order protecting private employers from coercive action if they fail to comply with the March 29 order of the Ministry of Home Affairs that directed paying full wages during the lockdown. The relevant part of the MHA order reads as follows:

“All the employers, be it in the industry or in the shops and commercial establishments, shall make payment of wages of their workers, at their workplaces, on the due date, without any deduction, for the period their establishments are under closure during lockdown period.”

It further spoke of coercive action if the above-mentioned direction is not followed:

“It is further directed that in case of violation of any the above measure, the respective State/UT shall take necessary action under the act”.

The Supreme Court heard a batch of petitions challenging this order and after hearing all submissions reserved orders on the petitions for June 12 and until then protected private employers from coercive action.

Attorney General’s submissions

The Attorney General (AG), KK Venugopal responded to these petitions saying that the purpose of the notification was for preventing human suffering. The intention behind the notification was to ensure that the migrant workers stay put in their migrated locations to prevent their movement to their native states or cities.

The bench, comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah, expressed their reservations over the mandate to pay 100% wages, “The question is do you have power to get them to pay 100 per cent and on their failure to do so, prosecute them… There is a concern that workmen should not be left without pay, but industry may not have the money to pay,” said Justice Kaul.

The MHA’s counter affidavit said that financial incapacity of private employers is a legally untenable ground to challenge a direction issued by a competent authority and stated that the notification was for mitigating the financial hardship of workers specially contractual and casual workers.

Justice Bhushan observed that such a situation warranted some negotiations between employers and workers to figure out what can be done for their financial security, with the government being the facilitator.

Petitioners’ submissions

Since the court has combined several petitions challenging the MHA order, the petitioners were represented by different counsels. Counsel for B4S Solutions Pvt Ltd, Senior Advocate KV Vishwanathan stressed upon the need of “proportionality” as being a paramount consideration in times of such crisis, while stating that the order was unfair on employers. He further argued that taking coercive action against employers for non-compliance would be antithetical to the intent of the notification in the long run as the industries who have no resources to pay would be forced to eventually shut down.

Advocate Jeetendra Gupta for another petitioner challenged the jurisdiction of MHA to pass the notification and asked the government to use the surplus fund with ESI for payment of minimum wages.

Advocate Varun Singh for another petitioner said it was the government’s responsibility to mitigate workers’ issue, “Why am I being made to suffer as an industry,” he questioned.

Arguments on behalf of workers

Senior Advocate Indira Jaising appeared on behalf of the workers and said, “the authority that imposed the lockdown is responsible for protection of those who are affected”. She argued that if the lockdown order wasnot being challenged then the MHA order also could not be quashed.

She contended that the workers were willing to work and this lockdown was not their fault and, in this situation, the “no work no pay” principle stood as an antithesis to Articles 14 [right to equality] and 21 [right to life] of the Indian Constitution.

While pronouncing guidelines and orders for Lockdown 4.0 which is till May 31, it has ceased the operation of its previous orders which includes the March 29 order as well. In its order dated May 17, the MHA stated, “Whereas, save as otherwise provided in the guidelines annexed to this Order, all orders issued by NEC under Section 2(10)(I) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 shall cease to have effect from May 18, 2020.” This was brought to the notice of the bench.

This means that MHA has given up the power to decide on this issue to the states and the states may come up with their own rules to that regard, if they wish to. Thus, private employers are no longer bound to pay their employees as per the MHA order but only the labour laws will apply. So, if the employee is not even working from home, he is not entitled to receive payment as per law.

The complete order can be read here.

Related:

Karnataka’s garment unit lays off over 1,000 workers without notice
Battle against dilution of labour laws to culminate in Supreme Court?
Rajasthan govt retracts 12 hrs working day, AITUC lauds move, asks others to follow suit

The post SC grant interim protection from coercive action to pvt employers for not paying full wages as per MHA order appeared first on SabrangIndia.

 
State-owned telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has failed to pay the February salaries to around 1.76 lakh employees due to its financial crisis. This is the first time the company has defaulted in payment of its monthly salaries. The fully government-owned corporation is undergoing a major cash crunch due to the price war with private companies.
 
The salary for the month of February has been delayed by 10 days.
 
“The company usually pays its employees on the last working day of the month or the first working day of the next. While BSNL continues its enviable market share, such a crisis has befallen the operator for the first time. While telecom prices have been reduced drastically, mostly after the entry of Reliance Jio, BSNL continues to operate with its large staff as compared to lean numbers employed by rivals,” Business Today reported.
 
According to a report in Times of India, salary due for a circle the size of Maharashtra runs up to more than Rs 60 crore. With at least 20 circles in the country, BSNL’s salary bill per month is estimated to be around Rs 1,200 crore. According to reports around 55% of BSNL’s revenues go in footing the monthly wages. The wage bill continues to increase annually by 8% but the revenues are stagnant.
 
State-owned telecom firm BSNL, which has been in the red for more than five years.
 
The employees’ union has written to telecom minister Manoj Sinha urging that the government release funds to the company to pay the salaries as well as revive the ailing firm. The employees have also been holding demonstrations.
 
“Around 55% of BSNL’s revenues goes towards payment of wages, and while the company’s wage bill increases annually by 8%, its revenues are stagnant. The associations and unions of BSNL have also said that the financial health of the telecom industry has suffered because of the predatory pricing of Reliance Jio. “Financial crisis is being faced by other operators also but they are managing the situation by infusing huge amounts,” a letter by All Unions and Associations of BSNL (AUAB) to Sinha said, a report by Financial Express said.
 
A BSNL official told Financial Express that the company has started paying February salaries now to staff in Kerala, J&K, Odisha and the corporate office. “As and when the income is generated, salaries will be paid to the staff. As the government has not given any financial support, the salaries are being delayed,” the official said.
 
The source further said even March salaries will be delayed by a few days despite the fact that cash flows in the month are usually higher because of billing from the enterprise business. Another source told FE that the BSNL board has approved a proposal to avail bank loan but the department of telecommunications has not given the go-ahead yet.
 
The losses of BSNL has been increasing every year. It reported a loss of around 8,000 crore for FY18, compared to 4,786 crore in FY17. For FY19 also, the loss is expected to be higher than 8,000 crore.
 
Under the Modi government, wages have not been given for various government projects.
 
No payment for Sardar Patel Statue of Unity workers
“Sardar Patel was one of the tallest leaders of the freedom struggle leading peasants to fight for fair remuneration and taxation by the British governments. It is ironic that the workers guarding his statue, the world’s tallest, have to resort to strike in order to get their wage dues from the Indian government,” The Wire reported.
 
Labourers who worked on the Sardar Patel Statue of Unity project have not received their wages for the last three months.
 
News reports suggest that over 100 workers of one of the contractors, entrusted with maintaining and operating the services at the Statue of Unity complex, have gone on strike demanding wage dues for the past three months. This has prompted the worker to go on strike and protest by forming a human chain.
 
NREGA workers file FIRs against Modi over non-payment of wages
Thousands of MGNREGA workers across the country attempted to lodge FIRs against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 28 for ‘making false promises’ and ‘cheating’ workers by not paying wages on time. The coordinated attempt was made in 150 police stations in nine states across the country.
 
The workers argue that by not providing adequate work and delaying wages, the government of India had violated the law. And Modi, as the head of the government, is the ‘principal violator’. Thus, the workers demanded, that Modi be booked under Sections 116 (Abetment of offence) and 420 (Cheating and dishonesty) of the Indian Penal code.
 
According to the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha, in the last five years, the employment guarantee scheme has been ‘deliberately undermined’. The organisation has argued that the government has allocated insufficient funds, not met the demand for additional funds on time, delayed wage payments and suppressed work demand.
 
In February, after the Union Budget was announced, The Wire highlighted that the allocation for MGNREGA for 2019-20 was, in fact, lower than that for 2018-19. In January, The Wire reported that 99% of the funds allocated for MGNREGA were exhausted with three months to go for the end of the financial year. Subsequently, the Centre allocated an additional Rs 6,084 crore that took the total allocation to Rs 61,084 crore. In the 2018 Budget, the government had allocated Rs 55,000 crore to the rural employment scheme. By announcing an allocation of Rs 60,000 crore for the financial year 2019-20, the government, in fact, reduced the funds set for MGNREGA.
 
Modi governments ad expenditure
In four years, Modi government spend more than Rs.4300 crores on publicity according to an RTI query. 
 
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its supporters accounted for a lion’s share of political advertising worth over Rs. 4 crore on Facebook, according to data compiled by the social media giant.
 
The advertisements run for the ruling dispensation range from promotion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government policies to those of its leaders, including BJP President Amit Shah — all of which were not necessarily paid by the party but by its supporters.
 
From February till March 2, 2019, the social media giant showed 16,556 ads related to politics and issues of national importance with ad spends crossing more than Rs 4.13 crore, according to Facebook’s Ad Archive Report.
 
The specific date on which Facebook started collecting data was not disclosed. However, on February 7, it had said the enforcement of the new features and the political advertisements policy, that includes having disclaimers, would start from February 21.

According to the data accessed by India Today TV, ‘Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat’ — an unverified page on Facebook that asks users to give feedback to the prime minister — is the top spender on political ads. The page had spent more than Rs 1.2 crore on its 1,556 ads averaging to roughly Rs 7,700 per ad. The pro-Narendra Modi page has 3,00,000 followers on the social media platform and was founded on January 27 this year. ‘Nation with NaMo’, another Modi fan page that has over 1.1 million followers on Facebook, stood second on the list. The page had spent more than Rs 64 lakh on its 1,074 ads averaging to around Rs 6,000 per ad.

Is this where the labourer’s money went?

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Currently, the formula for calculating the national minimum wage presumes that each wage earner supports three persons (“consumption units”), and that a “consumption unit” needs at least 2,700 calories per day (in addition to essential non-food items such as clothing, medicines and transport).

The new formula, arrived at by using new evidence on how and how much households consume, suggests increasing the number of “consumption units” per household to 3.6.

Given “a reduction in the proportion of workers engaged in heavy work and an increase in the number of workers in moderate and sedentary occupations”, the committee recommends reducing the per head (adult) minimum calorie requirement to 2,400 calories, but also that the monetary value for food consumption used in the formula must account for including 50 grams of protein and 30 grams of fat in an adult diet.

With the new formula–which also ascribes enhanced values to essential non-food items–the committee has arrived at a figure of Rs 375 per day, or Rs 9,750 per month, as the national minimum wage.

The Report of the Expert Committee on Determining the Methodology for Fixing the National Minimum Wage has been prepared by a committee chaired by Anoop Satpathy, a fellow at the VV Giri National Labour Institute, an autonomous institute under the labour ministry.

Estimation Of The Daily National Minimum Wage (NMW) (In Rs)

Source: Report of the Expert Committee on Determining the Methodology for Fixing the National Minimum Wage

Such a national minimum wage would apply across the country irrespective of sectors, skills, occupations and rural-urban locations, the report recommends, and would represent the basic minimum wage that enables healthy living and efficient performance at work.

More than 80% of Indian workers are employed in informal jobs, as per the International Labour Organization’s 2018 report, Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture. These workers are unable to negotiate decent wages and working conditions, and often have no social security benefits.

The increase in minimum wage recommended by the committee–to Rs 375–looks like a lot compared to the Rs 176 at present, “but if you compare it to the central minimum wage, it is not an increase”, Sabina Dewan, president and executive director of research organisation JustJobs Network, told IndiaSpend.

The central minimum wage is what is paid to workers in central government organisations or those working on central government projects, e.g., a building in Odisha for the IT department.

It starts from Rs 333 for agricultural unskilled workers and goes up to Rs 728 for highly skilled, industrial workers.

“Such a minimum wage is in no way representative of the workers’ skill levels and the employer’s capacity to pay,” the report says, “It is just enough to meet the basic requirements of workers and their families and can be made statutory.”

Region-wise alternative
Alternatively, the committee suggests, the country could be carved up into five different regions with diverse socio-economic and labour market situations. The national minimum wage for each region could be estimated using a nationally representative food basket (but at regional average unit price of each food item), the committee says.

The report discourages using regional food baskets in order to “dissociate the consumption pattern from the level of poverty and ability to pay in a region”.

The required expenditure for non-food items would, however, be estimated separately for each region.

As per the committee’s estimates, the minimum wage for various regions, thus calculated, would range between Rs 342 per day (or Rs 8,892 per month) and Rs 447 per day (Rs 11,622 per month).

Source: Ministry of Labour and Employment

Rent allowance extra
Recognising that house rent “accounts for a significant proportion of the overall non-food component”, the committee has recommended an additional house rent allowance, averaging up to Rs 55 per day or Rs 1,430 per month in cities, to be paid “over and above” the national minimum wage.

The rent allowance may vary by city and town, and the committee has recommended that a separate study look into it.

Wages by skill-level
At present, various state governments have opted to fix minimum wages for at least three or four categories of workers based on their skills level–unskilled, semiskilled, skilled and highly skilled.

The national minimum wage recommended by the present committee applies to workers across skill levels.

However, the committee says, to know whether minimum wages should vary by skill level would need a detailed analysis of the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF), as well as a standard approach to define skill levels at the national and state levels.

It recommends that a separate committee be set up to study this in collaboration with stakeholders such as the skill development ministry as well as employers’ and workers’ organisations.

Six-monthly revisions
The panel has also recommended reviewing the minimum wage every six months based on the changes in retail price fluctuations, as some states do at present (and others do after a gap of five years).

“I think it is a good idea to revise the minimum wage based on inflation and other economic indicators that change regularly, but implementation will undoubtedly be difficult,” Dewan of JustJobs Network said. “For one, how do you ensure that enterprises of all sizes are apprised of the changes on a regular basis? What will the administrative cost of revising payroll be?”

Beyond subsistence
The labour ministry, in its preface to the report, says the committee’s work aims to achieve “decent work and inclusive growth” for India’s workers, and acknowledges the need for India to address issues such as low pay, wage inequality and gender wage gap.

“The government is ever committed to improving the living conditions of informal economy workers who contribute significantly to India’s economic growth and progress,” the preface states, “A minimum guaranteed income for all workers would therefore go a long way towards bettering workers’ living standards and help India achieve many of its socio-economic goals, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

The Code on Wages Bill introduced in Parliament in August 2017 aimed to achieve these objectives by making the national minimum wage legally binding by giving it statutory backing.

At present, although a national minimum wage floor has been in place since the 1990s–and has risen progressively to Rs 176 per day in 2017–some 62 million workers are paid less than the indicative national minimum wage, as per the International Labour Organization’s 2018 India Wage Report. The rate of low pay is higher for women than for men.

Making the national minimum wage legally binding would require fixing a single national minimum wage–or different national minimum wages for different states or geographical areas–which was the remit of the present committee.

However, the term of the 16th Lok Sabha having ended, the Code on Wages Bill has lapsed and would have to be reintroduced in parliament after the next government comes to power. The committee’s report would also have be considered by the subsequent government.

A study by JustJobs Network that looked at wages across the globe suggests that successful wage regimes include a minimum wage that serves as a floor to ensure workers’ basic needs, Dewan said. “They must also provide compensation ladders, established through sound industrial relations and collective bargaining in which wage growth is aligned with productivity and prices,” she added.

We welcome feedback. Please write to respond@indiaspend.org. We reserve the right to edit responses for language and grammar.

Courtesy: India Spend

The post New Formula Could Double National Minimum Wage To Rs 375/Day, But Implementation Is Key appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Davos: Unpaid work done by women looking after their homes and children is worth 3.1% of the country’s GDP. Women spend 312 minutes per day in urban areas and 291 minutes per day in rural areas on such unpaid care work. In comparison, men spend only 29 minutes in urban and 32 minutes in rural areas on unpaid care work.
 
An Oxfam report on inequality published on January 21 revealed much more. It added that at the workplace, women still receive 34% fewer wages than their male counterparts for the same work.
 
“When governments reduce their expenditures on essential public services such as education and healthcare, women and girls are the first ones to lose out on these services,” according to the report.
 
Girl children from the lower strata of society are lucky to see a classroom at all. In India, girls belonging to families in the top 20% get nine years of education on average, while girls from families in the bottom 20% get none at all. Even those who make it to school are often pulled out when money is tight, the report said. In addition, more than 23 million girls drop out of school annually because of lack of toilets in school and proper menstrual hygiene management facilities.
 
There were only nine women billionaires in the list of 119 Indian billionaires.
 
Then, because social norms subject women to domesticity, they often have to stay home and look after the young and the elderly.
 
Citing a 1,000-household survey undertaken in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, Oxfam in its report said 53% of those surveyed said it was acceptable to harshly criticise a woman if she failed to care well for the children and 33% felt it was acceptable to even beat a woman for this reason.
 
Similarly, 60% felt it was acceptable to harshly criticise a woman if she left a dependent or ill adult unattended and 36% felt it was acceptable to beat her for the same reason.
 
Also, 41% felt it was acceptable to beat a woman if she did not prepare a meal for the men in the family while 68% felt it was acceptable to criticise her harshly.
 
Besides, 42% said a woman should be beaten if she failed to fetch water or fuelwood for her family and 65% felt she deserved to be criticised harshly.
 
A whopping 54% felt it was fine to beat a woman if she left the house without asking a man’s permission and 86% felt she should be criticised harshly for doing so.
 
Observing that these issues put severe restrictions on women’s ability to go out and undertake paid work, Oxfam said women’s ability to undertake paid work is not merely determined by economic considerations but also by social norms.
 
“It is understood that a woman’s primary role is to take care of the house and her family and any income-generating work is secondary to this role,” it added.
 
The study also found that cutting taxes on wealth predominantly benefits men who own 50% more wealth than women globally, and control over 86% of corporations.
 
The Oxfam study also referred to India’s poor 108th ranking on the WEF’s Global Gender Gap Index of 2018, saying it was 10 notches less than in 2006 and far below the global average and behind its neighbours China and Bangladesh.
 
Oxfam said India has many laws that deal with violence against women, but their implementation remains a challenge, including due to a deeply patriarchal society.
 
Oxfam said inequality has a “female face” in India, where women are less likely to have paid work when compared to men, while even among the richest there are only nine women in the country’s 119-member billionaires club.
 
The paid work women do bring them fewer earnings as compared to men due to the existing wage gap and therefore households that rely primarily on female earners tend to be poorer, it said, referring to the country’s gender pay gap at 34%.
 
It observed that various intersections of caste, class, religion, age and sexual orientation have further implications on women inequality as a process.
 

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In urban areas, a woman with a graduate degree gets paid Rs 690.68 per day in the transport and storage sector while a man gets 30% more at Rs 902.45. In agriculture, an illiterate woman worker in rural India receives Rs 88.2 per day while an illiterate man receives Rs 128.52, which is 45% more.
 
However, there are some sectors in which women get paid more than men, although by smaller margins. In the construction sector in rural areas, for instance, women (irrespective of the level of education) are paid Rs 322 on average per day while men are paid Rs 279.15, which is Rs 43 or 13% less.
 
In urban areas, in the transport and storage sector, women are paid Rs 455 on average per day, irrespective of the level of education, while men are paid Rs 443 per day–Rs 12 or 2.7% less.
 
The ‘Men and Women in 2017’ report released by the statistics and programme implementation ministry in May 2018 contains data on average daily wages and salaries for men and women aged 15-59 years, arranged by industry and type of work.
 

Source: Men and Women In 2017, Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation
Note: Figures in rupees. Manufacturing 1 includes Food and Beverages, Tobacco, Textiles, Textile Products, and Leather and Footwear; Manufacturing 2 includes Wood and Cork, Pulp, Paper, Paper Products, Printing and Publishing, Coke, Refined Petroleum and Nuclear Fuel, Chemicals and Chemical Products, Rubber and Plastics, Other Non-Metallic Minerals, Basic Metals and Fabricated Metal Products, Machinery, Electrical and Optical Equipment.
 
A graduate woman earns 5.8 times more than an illiterate woman in rural areas while graduate  men earn 3.6 times more than illiterate men. A graduate woman earns nearly four times more than an illiterate woman in urban areas, while graduate men earn nearly three times more than illiterate men.
 
It is interesting to note that the gender wage gap between men and women remains high even after higher education–a graduate woman is paid Rs 609 on average across sectors while a man with a graduate or higher degree will earn Rs 805. Women with graduate or higher degree earn 24% less than their male counterparts.
 
Construction is the highest paying sector for women in rural areas while mining and quarrying is the highest paying sector for men, the data show.
 
In urban areas, men get paid the most in the mining and quarrying sector while women get paid the most in the public sector (such as in electricity, gas and water utilities).
 
As pointed out before, there are some sectors such as transport in rural areas where women get paid more than men–in urban areas, transport and storage pays Rs 11 more to women than men.
 
The Global Wage Report 2016-17 published by the International Labour Organization in 2016 had raised an alarm with the revelation that the gender pay gap in India, at 30%, was among the highest in the world.
 
Women in top management in India earn 18.8% less than men, this 2016 report by the advisory firm Korn Ferry Hay Group had said, blaming the gap on lesser representation of women in senior roles.
 
More generally across the value chain, women in India earn 67% less than men, and the gap will take more than 100 years to close, the advisory Accenture said in this 2017 report based on a global survey.
 
Meanwhile, fewer women are taking part in the paid labour force. In the first four months of 2017, 2.4 million women fell off the employment map, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), a Mumbai-based think-tank, as IndiaSpend reported on August 5, 2017.
 
Among South Asian peers, India in 2013 had the lowest rate of female employment after Pakistan. In roughly two decades preceding 2013, female labour force participation in India fell from 34.8% to 27%, according to an April 2017 report by the World Bank.
 
India ranks 108th among 144 countries on gender equality rankings created by the World Economic Forum for its Global Gender Gap report of 2017. This puts India behind Bangladesh (at 47) and China (at 100).
 
Greater gender equality in a country is associated with better education and health, higher per capita income, faster and more inclusive economic growth, and greater international competitiveness.
 
Closing the gender gap in labour force participation rates would add $12 trillion to global GDP by 2025, a widely cited study by the McKinsey Global Institute had said in 2015.
 
(Salve is an analyst with IndiaSpend.)
 
We welcome feedback. Please write to respond@indiaspend.org. We reserve the right to edit responses for language and grammar.
 

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