Human Rights Day: Unorganised workers press for legislation, warn of Lok Sabha poll strategy if demands unmet

The workers, from around 21 formal groups, met under the banner of Asangathhit Shramik Hitrakshak Manch, Gujarat (ASHMG) at Ganga Govind Mangal Bhuvan Hall in the Lal Darwaja area to voice their concerns and challenges.

Around 350 labourers from various unorganised sectors of Gujarat Sunday demanded to enact a wholesome law to safeguard their various rights like minimum wages and provisions for temporary accommodation, among other things, on the occasion of Human Rights Day. They also warned that if the state government failed to meet their demands, then they would prepare a strategy for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The workers, from around 21 formal groups of farm labourers, construction workers, salt-pan workers, fishermen, street vendors, rickshaw drivers, rag pickers, forest produce gatherers, household workers, workers under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and sanitation workers, met under the banner of Asangathhit Shramik Hitrakshak Manch, Gujarat (ASHMG) at Ganga Govind Mangal Bhuvan Hall in the Lal Darwaja area to voice their concerns and challenges.

The group has also prepared a memorandum of demands that they are likely to submit to Labour and Employment Minister Balvantsinh Rajput on December 12. Among the major demands of the workers are to have a separate complete law for the welfare of workers of the unorganised sector and to stop their exploitation.

According to convener of the group Vipul Pandya, there are 2.5 crore workers, of which around two crores are from the unorganised sector, in Gujarat as per the National sample Survey Organisation. “These workers from the unorganised sector are deprived of most of the benefits enjoyed by workers of the organised sector even after so many years of Independence. We have prepared a memorandum of demands that include our general demands and sectoral demands as well,” Pandya said, adding, “If they want votes of two crore labourers of the unorganised sector, then they have to accept our demands”.

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