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As the Election Commission (EC) announced the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday, the Congress declared another set of manifesto promises – this time focusing on the workers – promising that it would if voted to power, enact a Right to Health law and employment guarantee Act for urban areas besides increasing the national minimum wage at Rs 400 per day.
The main Opposition party also reiterated its resolve to pass a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and a comprehensive social, economic and caste census. The party has already announced a raft of promises for the youth, women, SCs and STs, and farmers centring around the broad theme of ‘Nyay’, hoping to strike a chord with these sections.
The promises announced by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge Saturday were called ‘Shramik Nyay’ and ‘Hissedari Nyay’.
The centrepieces of Saturday’s announcements were promises to enact a “Right to Health law that will provide universal healthcare, including free essential diagnostics, medicines, treatment, surgery, and rehabilitative and palliative care” and “bring an employment guarantee act for urban areas, with a focus on building public infrastructure, making cities resilient to climate change, and bridging gaps in social services”.
The party also promised to increase the national minimum wage to Rs 400 per day, which, it said, will also be the minimum for all Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme workers nationally. The current floor wage stands at Rs 176 per day, last revised in 2017. The other promise was to put in place an architecture for providing comprehensive social security for all unorganised workers, including life insurance and accident insurance.
The Congress has also promised a “comprehensive review of the anti-worker labour codes passed by the Modi government, and to make suitable amendments to strengthen the rights of labour.”
“The Congress will stop contractualisation of employment in core government functions. Contract labour will be the employment of last resort only, requiring clear justification and protection for the rights of workers. Contract employment in the private sector will be required to meet minimum standards of social security,” Kharge said.
The Congress has signalled that livelihood issues like unemployment and the rise in cost of living would be the centrepiece of its campaign. The 25 promises that the party has announced so far are tailored to address the issues and appeal to the youth, women, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes and farmers.
To woo women, the party has dusted off and revived NYAY or Nyuntam Aay Yojana, the highlight of its 2019 manifesto promise, and announced that it would give Rs 1 lakh annually to a woman of every poor family, would provide 50 per cent reservation for women in new appointments in the central government and double the Centre’s contribution in the salaries of Anganwadi, ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) and mid-day meal scheme workers.
The party also promised the appointment of a legal assistant in every panchayat to educate women on their rights and provide necessary help, and the construction of at least one working women’s hostel in all district headquarters across the country, to be named after social reformer Savitribai Phule.
Targeting the youth, the party has promised to fill up to 30 lakh vacant posts in the central government, right to apprenticeship to provide a one-year apprenticeship with a private or a public sector company to every diploma holder or college graduate below the age of 25, monetary compensation for those affected by paper leaks, a legislation to ensure better working conditions and social security for gig workers and setting up of a Rs 5,000 crore startup fund with allotments spread across all districts of the country for five years for youth below the age of 40 years.
Its promises for the tribal community included setting up of a national mission for effective implementation of the Forest Rights Act, withdrawing all amendments made by the BJP government to Forest Conservation and Land Acquisition Acts and reviving the Scheduled Caste Plan and the Tribal Sub-Plan. Having promised to make minimum support price (MSP) a legal guarantee, it has said that the legal status for MSP will also cover Minor Forest Produce (MFP).
The party has also promised to “notify all habitations or groups of habitations where STs are the largest social group as Scheduled Areas – in all States and Union Territories of India and will enact state laws in conformity with the central Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (PESA) to establish ‘Village government’ and ‘Autonomous District Government’ as envisaged in PESA”.
As for farmers, the Congress promises to set up a “Standing Farm Loan Waiver Commission” to waive loans of farmers, give MSP legal status, restructure the PM Fasal Bima Yojana, formulate an import-export policy for agricultural commodities and exclude farmers from the ambit of Goods and Services Tax (GST).
