Give other half the right to live

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Give other half the right to live

Wednesday, 27 February 2019 | VK Bahuguna

Being migratory workers, those in the informal economy have been denied their due. It’s time the Government takes note of this valuable social capital

The 16th Lok Sabha’s five-year tenure came to an end on February 13 and political leaders said goodbye to each other in a rare bonhomie and are now getting ready for the Parliamentary elections scheduled to be held in May. The Indian polity remained embroiled in the Rafale deal and other superficial issues for most part of the year; though the NDA Government did give some parting gifts in the interim Budget to the farmers and the poor people, who largely constitute a work force in the unorganised sector. It’s time to discuss what major political parties like the BJP and the Congress are going to offer to the unorganised workers, who constitute about 90 per cent of the work force and according to the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, contribute 50 per cent to the GDP.  India is the fifth largest economy of the world today and is poised to climb further to the third position. But did our planners think about the plight and acute hardship this group of people faces almost everyday? They constitute a solid vote bank of more than 45 crore and are mostly engaged in agriculture, construction and other such activities. Of these, the condition of migratory construction workers is very pitiable.

This writer had recently interacted with migrant workers from Madhya Pradesh during an extremely cold day in January. The workers said that they had to suffer from cold while living in plastic huts and that they had been cooking and bathing in the open for the past two months. They were working for the Noida Authority’s civil works department and their wages varied from Rs400 to Rs500. Their condition reflected the lack of application of mind and a gross uncaring attitude to human welfare while planning for developmental activities. The construction industry plays a major role in the economic growth of the nation and occupies a pivotal position in its developmental plans, valued as it is at around Rs9 lakh crore. These are the people who toil hard to make big mansions, beautiful roads, swanky offices and posh residential colonies but themselves lead a precarious life under the open sky.

Largely being migratory workers, they are denied voting rights. They are either landless or small farmers, who come to urban areas with their children in search of a better livelihood, seasonal employment but get trapped. Most of them are vulnerable to diseases. Around 30 per cent of the construction workers in India are women, mostly working as head loader or unskilled worker. Many are even unaware about their legal rights during an accident at work, which has become a regular phenomenon now. Several cases of deaths and injuries are reported due the laxity of contractors and unscrupulous builders, many of whom are spurious and play with human life in their greed for money. Yet another group of people are the mine workers. The gory incident in Meghalaya, where 15 coal miners were trapped in a rat-hole mine, must be our conscience call. It was such a horrific incident that the miners’ bodies could not be retrieved. In a recent report, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour highlighted the plight of the unorganised sector workers. It is high time that political parties take cognisance of this most valuable social capital of the nation. They are much more in numbers than all the unions members put together but they have no voice.

It is essential to discuss issues that concern the livelihoods of these people. The Government must first classify the unorganised sector by occupation — agriculture, construction (rural and urban), service or manufacturing and nature of employment among others. It must then scrutinise the problems for each category. The most important issue is their exploitation due to poor wages, which is compounded with low productivity compared to the formal sector. They have seasonal jobs and are absent from social security systems due to poor human capital base in terms of education, skill and training. It would be in the fitness of things that the Government announces a separate national programme for different segments, particularly agriculture, construction and ones who are self-employed. New laws must be devised if existing laws do not support providing them basic necessities of life.

The skill development programme must include these segments with an emphasis on personality development. Laws must have the provision for a decent shelter with basic civic amenities like clean water, sanitation, protection from extreme heat and cold in their living space, proper medical facilities, child care and legal remedies.  Insurance companies can be be roped in. It would be worthwhile to provide earmarked housing on nominal rental basis for seasonal workers for which the Government should take action. To give a fillip to their welfare, a national commission on unorganised sector should be constituted to suggest a road-map for social security at par with the organised sector, structure welfare modules and review legal redress mechanisms.

(The writer is a retired civil servant)

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