Thrown to the wolves

Compensation packages elude the worker On May Day, Delhi mill worker Sarvesh Chand set fire to himself, unable to cope with the fact that h...

Compensation packages elude the worker

On May Day, Delhi mill worker Sarvesh Chand set fire to himself, unable to cope with the fact that he could no longer feed his family. On the day of his funeral, one of his colleagues attempted self-immolation, driven by the same despair. On Friday last, yet another Delhi worker doused himself in kerosene in a bid to end his tragic existence. In Mumbai, the scenario is much the same. This April saw 6,000 workers of the Khatau Makanji Spinning and Weaving, which has totally stopped production, threatening an indefinite hunger strike over the non-payment of their salary arrears. The story, with a few regional variations, is being retold in almost every city in the country. It speaks volumes for the cynicism of the times that very little is being done to throw a lifeline to these unfortunate people, who once moved the levers and wheels of development and now find themselves without a job for no fault of theirs. After all, finding another source of livelihood in middle-age is often impossible.

True, industrial and economic development is a very uneven and uncertain process, with periods of both growth and stagnation. Granted, urban units that congest and pollute cities do sometimes require to be relocated in the interests of a cleaner, greener ambience and for the general health of city-dwellers. But, even while recognising this, there is the important principle of accountability involved. Those whose lives are destroyed as a result of closures must be given an adequate safety net. It is not as if this aspect is not recognised by the decision-makers. In fact, Septemberacirc;euro;trade;s Supreme Court order on the closure of all large-scale and hazardous industries in the Capital to provide more acirc;euro;tilde;acirc;euro;tilde;lung spaceacirc;euro;trade;acirc;euro;trade; for the city did have the proviso that the workers of those units that chose not to shift elsewhere will have to be given one yearacirc;euro;trade;s salary as compensation. The Union Government even set up a high-level committee to suggest concrete measures to protect the interests of the 40,000 odd workers who were rendered jobless as a result of the courtacirc;euro;trade;s order. But precious little seems to have emerged from all this. The owners of the units continue to procrastinate over providing compensation, even as the levels of frustration and hunger rise.

According to the National Sample Service statistics, the rate of employment generation in the organised sector declined from 1.6 per cent per year during 1981-91 to 0.8 per cent per year during 1991-95. This is seen by economists as the inevitable fall-out of liberalisation with its emphasis on the rational downsizing of units. Since the country is committed to the furthering of this process, national-level initiatives to deal with the consequent rise in unemployment levels will have to be put in place. The only attempt of this kind so far has been the National Renewal Fund, which from all accounts has proved a failure. In any case, its benefits are limited only to those belonging to the public sector units. What may be a more efficacious measure in helping the jobless worker would be the establishing of a contributory unemployment insurance scheme. Political parties have from time to time mouthed the need for such an initiative but they have not taken any concrete step on this issue so far.