[size=18:9e66fd82e7]Labour Issues in India – brief overview[/size:9e66fd82e7]
Absenteeism and Labour Turnover
For many industries, lack of trained labour force is a problem. However, these problems are compounded by the fact that there are multitudes of unemployed potential labourers who, however, do not have the adequate skills for the job. Additionally, many do not also have the means to market themselves, or to make themselves available for jobs. Hence, lack of availability of labour is not merely a demand-supply problem, it has deeper socio-economic roots that need to be looked at from various perspectives.
However, in many organized sectors where the demand for labour has been effectively met, absenteeism and huge turnover of labourers bring about their own problems. In many cases, absenteeism is prevalent in PSUs and government owned organizations. Causes are many, and include unionism, lack of ownership and participation, availability of alternate employment, misuse of benefits and remuneration and sometimes, lack of effective management control.
Women Employee Problems
Since time immemorial and despite the vast cultural and historical richness of our country, women are still considered less capable than men where labour is concerned. Of course, the reasons are cultural and socio-economic. Firstly, women are not considered physically fit for labour, and are often relegated to menial tasks. This deprives them of adequate compensation. Secondly, physical activity continues beyond working hours, in the household, depriving them of rest. A sacrificial mindset also makes them susceptible to malnutrition and poor health, which again affects their livelihood. Therefore, it is hard for women to actually come out of this vicious cycle in which they are trapped, simply because of their gender. The challenge is to change the mindset of a society which still sees women labourers more as beasts of burden.
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However, there has been some progress which has been achieved with active government and NGO intervention. In many established companies and industries in the private sector, gender is not a consideration for employment and is neither are women employees and labourers discriminated against for pay or opportunity. In fact, in socially aware business houses like the Tatas, gender equality is an important part of their triple-bottom line concept, which enshrines equal opportunity for all, irrespective of caste, creed, gender, religion, nationality or ethnicity.
Despite these minor but significant positive stories, women continue to receive an unequal deal in the labour sector.
Child labour
According to the 1991 Census, the number of working children in the country was
of the order of 11.28 million. The existence of child labour in hazardous industries continues to be a great problem in India. Non-availability of accurate, authentic and up-to-date data on child labour has been major handicap in planned intervention for eradication of this social evil. However, efforts are underway to modify and improve the existing National Child Labour Project. A major activity undertaken under this scheme is the establishment of special schools to provide non-formal education, vocational training, supplementary nutrition, stipends, health care, etc. to children withdrawn from employment in hazardous industries.
However, this is not a problem that can be solved merely by legislation. Again, a socio-economic problem with deeper roots into the socio-economic strata of the backward states of India (particularly the Bimaru states), child labour is said to be only the symptom of the larger problem – the prevailing inequality in rural Indian society, particularly these states of the country.
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Recently, hundreds of children were freed after action by the Mumbai police and some NGOs from zari factories in Mumbai city. Zari work (fine decorative embroidery crafted by hand) calls for delicate, small and nimble fingers, and hence child labourers are often recruited from the poorer areas of the country. Uneducated and often compelled by their poor parents and relatives, these children are transported to the big cities by unscrupulous middle-men who sell them to factory owners. Investigations by NGOs revealed that these kids were malnourished and worked for more than 12 hours a day, often without seeing the outside world for days on stretch. Such inhuman conditions left the children malnourished and in some extreme cases, partially blind (zari work is also a strain in the eyes, compounded by poor light and ventilation in these factories).
It is to be noted that even after the rescue, many children chose to stay back, citing starvation and abject poverty back home as less preferable to the inhuman conditions at these factories. Such is the condition of the child labourer in India.
Contract Labour
The subject of contract labour has generated much heated debate in the economic and industrial circles in India.
For a poor, uneducated and marginalized Indian labourer, contract labour is often better than none at all. However, the labourer often signs himself off to life-long penury with little hope for advancement and improvement of conditions.
However, for an industry or a business, the legalities involved in contract labour (particularly with reference to the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947) disable them to lay-off labourers, solve labour related issues, or even close down unprofitable ventures. In a greater economic scenario, this has caused the Indian textile industry huge losses – and has let countries like China, Pakistan and even Bangladesh ahead.
Bonded Labour
Despite the ban on Bonded Labour through the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 and the presence of a well-organized government structure to fight it, Bonded Labour is a painful reality in the Indian Economy.
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The root cause can be attributed to the ancient caste system or the feudal zamindar system which has existed in India since ancient times. In the Indian psyche, bonded labour has not provoked the same fervour that led to the abolition of slavery in other parts of the world.
Usually, women and children are the victims of bonded labour. According to Human Rights Watch, nearly 60 to 115 million children are victims of bonded labour. Many of these children work in the fields, or in hazardous industries like firecrackers and matchsticks and under poorly supervised conditions.
Often, children are “sold” by their parents or relatives to work to write off a debt which the parent or guardian owes the creditor-labourer. However, this debt never gets paid off – the lack of education of the generations of labourers ensures that – and the master-labourer relationship continues for a long time – in many cases (quoted by the NGO Human Rights Watch), for generations.
References
1.The Small Hands of Slavery, Human Rights Watch Asia, 1996
2.BBC and NDTV, September 2005
3.The Hindu, September 2005
4.National Geographic, July 1999
5.The Ministry of Labour, Government of India (website: www.labour.nic.in)
