According to government surveys, the total employment in the country in both the organised and unorganised sectors is around 50 crore. Of these hardly three crore, or 6 per cent, is in the organised sector. In the unorganised sector a majority of the workers are employed in agriculture and construction work, while the remaining few are in manufacturing and service.
There are major issues of providing workers with social security, ensuring fair wages and reducing the exploitation of contract labour. Apart from that, the unemployment figure remains high. Though India has one of the largest and youngest labour forces in the world, there is a tremendous shortage of skilled workers. The problem of child labour too has been inadequately addressed though it has become an international concern. In an exclusive interview with Editor-in-Chief Raj Chengappa, Union Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge talks about these and other issues concerning India’s labour. Excerpts:
What are your key priorities for 2011?
We want to ensure that under our health insurance scheme for the poor, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna, at least 75 per cent of the people who are below the poverty line can be covered. I want to bring those in the unorganised sector — domestic workers, vegetables vendors and street hawkers etc — under the scheme too. The second area is that the Industrial Disputes Act, which I have already got amended in the last parliamentary session, should be implemented this year strictly. This will speed up the settlement of disputes. The amendment will allow workers to go to court direct after a 45-day waiting period rather than wait for the government to take its time over arbitration, which in many cases, took years. Even the tribunals have been empowered to speed up decisions.
Are you planning any reforms for the unorganised sector, which still constitutes over 90 per cent of the Indian labour?
Yes, I want to bring reforms in contract labour in the unorganised sector to end their exploitation. In the organised sector the contract labour’s interests are more or less safeguarded. But in the name of outsourcing contracts, even many state governments and Central institutions are allowing contractors to exploit labour in the unorganised sector. So we want to give them some justice and fix equal wages for equal work, and provide social security to them. They will slowly come in the organised sector as a result. If they get fair wages, then the consuming capacity of contract labourers will go up and result in an overall economic growth. I have moved the proposal to the Union Cabinet, which has constituted a committee of secretaries to look into it.
Do you expect any obstacles in implementing it?
I need the help of trade unions, employers and the media to speed it up. All such agreements are tripartite involving the labour, the employers and the government. If all the three stakeholders agree, we can move fast and do justice. In a democracy there are hurdles. We can’t just overrule the opponents and make or amend laws.
The industry remains unhappy with the stringent industrial laws that make issues like retrenchment or exit extremely difficult.
Every amendment is discussed in detail. The labour and employers are there at meetings but the industry does not come forward with a solution. While suggesting solutions, they should also tell us how other countries are doing it and what facilities they are providing as compared to ours. Are there examples in other countries where industry can retrench labour suo moto without any social security? If there are such laws in any country, we will study them. I do not agree with this habit of simply complaining about being harassed. Yes, we have to see that a labourer should work for whatever salary he gets and whatever laws are there he has to follow. But at the same time the managements should also follow these rules. In spite of there being so many labour laws, courts and industrial tribunals, we are noticing that many institutions are not making permanent appointments but only outsource workers. Is that not exploitation?
Essentially, the industry wants reforms in the hire-and-fire policy
They usually want reforms which result in the harassment of labour. The labour laws and regulations have been in practice for a long time and were formulated by great personalities like Jawaharlal Nehru, B. R. Ambedkar and Jagjivan Ram. At that time everybody was in favour of labour and industry. Consequently, public sector units were set up during those days. So it is wrong to say that these laws were formulated to harass managements. However, if managements have some specific instances of harassment and indiscipline by the workforce under some specific labour laws, we are always open to suggestions and amendments.
The industry’s main complaint is that the laws are heavily loaded against managements and lead to slackness of labour
Who says the labour laws are there only to protect the workers and create indiscipline and other issues? If any worker/employee does not work and misbehaves, the management should issue him/her a notice and after adopting a proper follow-up procedure of holding inquiry, etc, the guilty worker can be sacked. But for any disciplinary action and sacking, a proper procedure has to be adopted because we are living in a democratic country where everything has to be done in accordance with the laws.
The other problem area is the harassment of the industry over the observation of labour laws
The culture of inspector raj has become outdated. We are trying to give it the complete go-by. So, the role of the inspectors has already been reduced. We are trying to remove the labour inspector raj and instead will give a nomenclature like social welfare officer or welfare inspector, etc. We have to take care of the labour also. We have to make a balance between the labour and the management and protect the interests of both.
There has been a significant decline in labour unrest in the past decade. Is there any particular reason?
Part of the reason is that there is a realisation that if the labour does not work, the industrial unit will close down. I have observed here and the world over that if there is social and job security, the workforce does not turn against the management. However, in case the management tries to harass and exploit workers, and does not follow the labour laws and regulations, then there are chances of unrest and confrontation. If the management does everything according to the labour laws, the worker is certainly going to get a satisfactory share of the profit.
Moving to the overall labour scenario in the country, rural unemployment remains high. How is the government addressing it?
In agriculture the Government of India, particularly Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh, have taken a lot of interest to protect agricultural labour and small and marginal farmers under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme under which crores of people are employed. There is a guaranteed minimum 100 days’ employment in a year which usually happens during the off-season for cultivation. The wages may be low but other safeguards are given. For example, for food, fair price shops are providing grain at Rs 3 a kg and mid-day meals in schools support their children apart from education being made compulsory and free. That is why there is not too much hue and cry because the government is taking care of their food, education and even health needs under various programmes. The well-to-do should not complain about the subsidies for such programmes. After all, don’t we give subsidies to big industries either through electricity or setting up special economic zones and give them land cheap and exempt them from taxes?
While India may have one of the largest and youngest labour forces in the world, what we lack is skilled labour. What is the government doing to encourage skill development?
Skill development means more or less vocational courses. We are upgrading our present ITIs and enhancing their intake capacity. We are permitting two or three shifts in each institute for shorter courses. We have prepared separate syllabi for the Modular Employable Scheme (MES) where, according to a student’s educational level, he or she can take suitable courses in any field of his or her interest that could be of a duration varying from three months to three years. Under the Skill Development Council a lot of work is being done and the Prime Minister and the Planning Commission are formulating schemes that in the next 12 years or so will train more than 50 crore workers.
What efforts is the government making with regard to arresting child labour, which has become an international issue?
The child labour issue in India, I think, will be wiped out by the end of the decade. According to the enforcement of the Child Labour Act and the rules for compulsory education of children by the UPA Government, a child above six years and below 14 years should get compulsory education. For the implementation of these rules, every Deputy Commissioner and officer concerned should be held accountable. One thing is that every parent and every district administrator will ensure that every child goes to school. Secondly, there is another attraction why children should go to school. They will get mid-day meals in school. Also, with their parents being supported economically by giving them employment under various schemes, child labour is expected to come down. So these are good programmes. The only problem is that, unfortunately, NGOs don’t take up such programmes seriously nor do many political parties. If each NGO takes up just one scheme and promotes it, tremendous work could be done.
There are major issues of providing workers with social security, ensuring fair wages and reducing the exploitation of contract labour. Apart from that, the unemployment figure remains high. Though India has one of the largest and youngest labour forces in the world, there is a tremendous shortage of skilled workers. The problem of child labour too has been inadequately addressed though it has become an international concern. In an exclusive interview with Editor-in-Chief Raj Chengappa, Union Labour and Employment Minister Mallikarjun Kharge talks about these and other issues concerning India’s labour. Excerpts:
What are your key priorities for 2011?
We want to ensure that under our health insurance scheme for the poor, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna, at least 75 per cent of the people who are below the poverty line can be covered. I want to bring those in the unorganised sector — domestic workers, vegetables vendors and street hawkers etc — under the scheme too. The second area is that the Industrial Disputes Act, which I have already got amended in the last parliamentary session, should be implemented this year strictly. This will speed up the settlement of disputes. The amendment will allow workers to go to court direct after a 45-day waiting period rather than wait for the government to take its time over arbitration, which in many cases, took years. Even the tribunals have been empowered to speed up decisions.
Are you planning any reforms for the unorganised sector, which still constitutes over 90 per cent of the Indian labour?
Yes, I want to bring reforms in contract labour in the unorganised sector to end their exploitation. In the organised sector the contract labour’s interests are more or less safeguarded. But in the name of outsourcing contracts, even many state governments and Central institutions are allowing contractors to exploit labour in the unorganised sector. So we want to give them some justice and fix equal wages for equal work, and provide social security to them. They will slowly come in the organised sector as a result. If they get fair wages, then the consuming capacity of contract labourers will go up and result in an overall economic growth. I have moved the proposal to the Union Cabinet, which has constituted a committee of secretaries to look into it.
Do you expect any obstacles in implementing it?
I need the help of trade unions, employers and the media to speed it up. All such agreements are tripartite involving the labour, the employers and the government. If all the three stakeholders agree, we can move fast and do justice. In a democracy there are hurdles. We can’t just overrule the opponents and make or amend laws.
The industry remains unhappy with the stringent industrial laws that make issues like retrenchment or exit extremely difficult.
Every amendment is discussed in detail. The labour and employers are there at meetings but the industry does not come forward with a solution. While suggesting solutions, they should also tell us how other countries are doing it and what facilities they are providing as compared to ours. Are there examples in other countries where industry can retrench labour suo moto without any social security? If there are such laws in any country, we will study them. I do not agree with this habit of simply complaining about being harassed. Yes, we have to see that a labourer should work for whatever salary he gets and whatever laws are there he has to follow. But at the same time the managements should also follow these rules. In spite of there being so many labour laws, courts and industrial tribunals, we are noticing that many institutions are not making permanent appointments but only outsource workers. Is that not exploitation?
Essentially, the industry wants reforms in the hire-and-fire policy
They usually want reforms which result in the harassment of labour. The labour laws and regulations have been in practice for a long time and were formulated by great personalities like Jawaharlal Nehru, B. R. Ambedkar and Jagjivan Ram. At that time everybody was in favour of labour and industry. Consequently, public sector units were set up during those days. So it is wrong to say that these laws were formulated to harass managements. However, if managements have some specific instances of harassment and indiscipline by the workforce under some specific labour laws, we are always open to suggestions and amendments.
The industry’s main complaint is that the laws are heavily loaded against managements and lead to slackness of labour
Who says the labour laws are there only to protect the workers and create indiscipline and other issues? If any worker/employee does not work and misbehaves, the management should issue him/her a notice and after adopting a proper follow-up procedure of holding inquiry, etc, the guilty worker can be sacked. But for any disciplinary action and sacking, a proper procedure has to be adopted because we are living in a democratic country where everything has to be done in accordance with the laws.
The other problem area is the harassment of the industry over the observation of labour laws
The culture of inspector raj has become outdated. We are trying to give it the complete go-by. So, the role of the inspectors has already been reduced. We are trying to remove the labour inspector raj and instead will give a nomenclature like social welfare officer or welfare inspector, etc. We have to take care of the labour also. We have to make a balance between the labour and the management and protect the interests of both.
There has been a significant decline in labour unrest in the past decade. Is there any particular reason?
Part of the reason is that there is a realisation that if the labour does not work, the industrial unit will close down. I have observed here and the world over that if there is social and job security, the workforce does not turn against the management. However, in case the management tries to harass and exploit workers, and does not follow the labour laws and regulations, then there are chances of unrest and confrontation. If the management does everything according to the labour laws, the worker is certainly going to get a satisfactory share of the profit.
Moving to the overall labour scenario in the country, rural unemployment remains high. How is the government addressing it?
In agriculture the Government of India, particularly Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh, have taken a lot of interest to protect agricultural labour and small and marginal farmers under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme under which crores of people are employed. There is a guaranteed minimum 100 days’ employment in a year which usually happens during the off-season for cultivation. The wages may be low but other safeguards are given. For example, for food, fair price shops are providing grain at Rs 3 a kg and mid-day meals in schools support their children apart from education being made compulsory and free. That is why there is not too much hue and cry because the government is taking care of their food, education and even health needs under various programmes. The well-to-do should not complain about the subsidies for such programmes. After all, don’t we give subsidies to big industries either through electricity or setting up special economic zones and give them land cheap and exempt them from taxes?
While India may have one of the largest and youngest labour forces in the world, what we lack is skilled labour. What is the government doing to encourage skill development?
Skill development means more or less vocational courses. We are upgrading our present ITIs and enhancing their intake capacity. We are permitting two or three shifts in each institute for shorter courses. We have prepared separate syllabi for the Modular Employable Scheme (MES) where, according to a student’s educational level, he or she can take suitable courses in any field of his or her interest that could be of a duration varying from three months to three years. Under the Skill Development Council a lot of work is being done and the Prime Minister and the Planning Commission are formulating schemes that in the next 12 years or so will train more than 50 crore workers.
What efforts is the government making with regard to arresting child labour, which has become an international issue?
The child labour issue in India, I think, will be wiped out by the end of the decade. According to the enforcement of the Child Labour Act and the rules for compulsory education of children by the UPA Government, a child above six years and below 14 years should get compulsory education. For the implementation of these rules, every Deputy Commissioner and officer concerned should be held accountable. One thing is that every parent and every district administrator will ensure that every child goes to school. Secondly, there is another attraction why children should go to school. They will get mid-day meals in school. Also, with their parents being supported economically by giving them employment under various schemes, child labour is expected to come down. So these are good programmes. The only problem is that, unfortunately, NGOs don’t take up such programmes seriously nor do many political parties. If each NGO takes up just one scheme and promotes it, tremendous work could be done.
Source: The Tribune, Chandigarh, India
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