The Hindu : The unprotected toilers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 25, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

The unprotected toilers

DESPITE THE CLAIMS to progress that India has made since Independence, the bulk of the country's workforce remains outside the purview of any meaningful social security mechanism. That an estimated 370 million workers who are outside the formal economy are unprotected is a sad statement about how the country has cared for its workers. The misplaced priorities of the past are clear from the fact that the organised sector constitutes a thin eight per cent of the total workforce, leaving the overwhelming majority to fend for itself. What makes the situation even more painful is that the workers who are outside the ambit of protection are spread across a range of occupations that contribute a significant portion of the national economy, agriculture being a major example. With the distortions in India's labour market seldom reflected in the broad economic performance figures, there can be no cause for comfort from the improvement in the nation's economy over the past five decades. Further complicating the present scenario is the new trend of industries in the organised sector outsourcing work and resorting to contract labour. The changing role of Governments, resulting in their moving away from job-creating activities, is bound to make matters worse.

The recent observation by an international report on the plight of the unorganised workforce should be seen against the backdrop of the larger changes that the national economy is going through. The early indications of a decline in employment in the organised sector, coupled with the fact that even the workforce in the organised sector is finding it difficult to resist the ongoing reforms, should spur the country's planners to put in place a workable social security mechanism. That the issue is not totally lost on Governments is evident from the frequent announcements made to bring in security measures — either in the form of insurance schemes or through constituting sector-specific worker welfare boards. Given the economic path that the country has now chosen and the projections that a bulk of the work of the future will be in the informal sector, the need for a credible social security mechanism requires no further elaboration. The solutions that have been suggested over the past year include introducing sector-specific schemes for protection, enhancing public expenditure, creating a separate department of social security at the Centre and the setting up of a National Social Security Authority of India for laying down policy and coordinating the activities of the various implementing agencies.

Any further delay in introducing a workable social security mechanism will only further retard the already sluggish pace of reforms. This is particularly so as the next phase of reforms will have to deal with the sensitive issue of labour laws. Given the resistance that is bound to crop up to such changes, providing a social security net should precede any such move. The recommendations made last year by the National Commission of Labour's study group on social security provide a good starting point. The Governments at the Centre and in the States will do well to recognise the merit of its suggestion for setting up boards for social security as it seeks to evolve a mechanism that will bring the entire workforce under protection. In formulating a social security policy, it is also important to recognise the various complexities involved in the Indian labour scenario. Factors such as illiteracy, caste structures and gender inequalities will also have to be taken into account. If the nation is to move ahead in economic reforms, it will have to win the confidence of the workforce that its interests will be safeguarded.

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