Blanking out 250 million

IT is an indication of the neglect of basic issues confronting common people, that pending legislation which impacts the livelihood of almos...

IT is an indication of the neglect of basic issues confronting common people, that pending legislation which impacts the livelihood of almost half the population in a highly significant way has been neglected in the recent election campaign. Several drafts of this bill for the welfare of unorganised workers were circulated recently by the labour ministry but effectively no law could be debated and passed by Parliament. The electoral campaign could have been a significant forum for discussing various aspects of this pending law, but the opportunity has been squandered, while several frivolous issues have dominated the campaign.

One of the weakest links of social security and the welfare of workers has been that 90 per cent of the workforce in the unorganised sector has remained mostly untouched by this legislation. To remove this serious anamoly, the Second National Commission of Labour NCL was given the important responsibility of recommending umbrella type legislation which could cover the wide diversity of occupations in the unorganised sector.

The NCL defined unorganised sector workers in a comprehensive way to include agricultural and construction workers, scavengers, rickshaw pullers, vendors, home-based workers, artisans, domestic workers and several other occupations. Keeping in view the fact that small farmers also work part time as workers, over 250 million are covered in this definition of unorganised workers. If we include dependents, then over half the population is covered.

To provide security to this vast work force, the NCL recommended a draft law which provides for a legal minimum wage with gender equality, welfare benefits, fixed working hours and holidays. To take these benefits to the workers, the NCL draft law recommended an infrastructure starting from a central board and going down to the panchayat level. This draft as well as follow-up suggestions made by a technical committee provided a firm basis for the speedy enacting of strong legislation on this important issue. However, the draft law prepared for the government contained several loopholes. This led to protests by several representatives of unorganised workers and inevitable delays.

Just before the elections the government announced a social security scheme for unorganised workers. Even if this election eve scheme is taken seriously after the elections, its scope is limited and it has several practical problems. Therefore legislation for all unorganised workers as recommended by NCL remains the basic issue.

These are few examples of a single law which is capable of bringing so many benefits to the most neglected section of society. In a healthy democracy concerned about its weakest sections, this pending law would have been a major election issue. Alas, that was not to be.