Eminent labour economist and professor at XLRI — Xavier School of Management, Dr KR Shyam Sundar’s new book titled — ‘Impact Of Covid-19, Reforms, Poor Governance on Labour Rights In India’ has been released on a virtual event. He dedicated the book to the premier international academic body (co-founded by former President VV Giri), the Indian Society of Labour Economics.

The book authored by Dr KR Shyam Sundar, XLRI comprises essays providing critical analyses on the contemporary developments during the pandemic-hit period 2020-21 concerning migrant workers, unorganised workers, labour rights, complete failure of the governance of the labour market, the Labour Codes that were hurriedly enacted by the Union Government and regional labour reforms measures.

The book is the first of its kind which provides critical and comprehensive analyses of policies, laws and rights concerning workers during the most challenging period witnessed in the history of humanity. It also discusses the responses and strategies followed by the trade unions.

The book not only critically analyses the contemporary developments but also provides valuable recommendations based on the People-centered ILO approach. It is published by the well-known publisher, Synergy Books, India.

Talking about the book released, Dr KR Shyam Sundar said, “Ever since the introduction of economic reforms in 1991 in India, employers and critics of labour regulation have argued for the introduction of reforms of the labour laws and the inspection system.

They demanded codification of labour laws and introduction of employer-friendly reforms in the process.  The Central government irrespective of the parties in power is committed to labour laws reforms, more so the NDA Government.  On the other hand, the trade unions have stridently argued that in the era of globalisation job losses have become rampant, the quality of jobs has deteriorated considerably and hence demand that labour laws need to be universalised and be effectively implemented.

The Covid-19 Pandemic has wrought the worst possible havoc both on lives and livelihoods of people in all the countries.

However, the adverse impact has landed far more severely on the vulnerably placed informal and the unorganised workers, people below the poverty line and thereby exacerbating existing inequalities in the economic system. ILO strongly recommended a four-pillar approach is a comprehensive and balanced approach arguing for designing policies and measures based on social dialogue to ensure employment generation, income and social protection and workers’ rights and support to firms. But the tale of policy-making in India during the Pandemic does not conform much to the healthy perspective of ILO.