Despite continual efforts by many governments to pull the wool over the eyes of the  nation regarding the numbers of the poor in the country, comes the report that 77 per cent of Indians — about 836 million people — mostly from the informal sector, with no job or social security, live on less than half a dollar a day.

This is a report, not by ever-peeved, protest-prone, placard-waving dissenters who refuse to be convinced that India is shining, but by the government-appointed National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) itself.

It is said that development is all about increasing choices.  What choices do these 36.9 crore workers in the unorganised sector constituting 92 per cent of the workforce have?

For instance, a typical agricultural labourer, Sharanappa, when ill, can choose between going to work and getting a day’s wage to feed himself, or staying at home because he is ill and foregoing wages and food. If he goes to work despite illness, he can opt between buying food with the wages or buying the medicine he badly needs.

Further, Sharanappa can decide either to pledge his child against a loan to meet his hospital expenses, or send him/her to school and forego his own health.

He can admit himself in hospital with the loan money to forestall his death, or use it to redeem his family home or land, already pledged to the moneylender, so that his family will have something to survive on, if he dies. He can either become a bonded labourer, to pay off his debts, or commit suicide and hope his family can clear it with the compensation money the government will hopefully give them.

Flexibility

That’s plenty to choose from! A completely free market with hardly any laws/rules helping these hapless 92 per cent workers, but the demand is for greater flexibility in labour laws and an even freer market!

Despite their precarious existence, varied versions of the Bill for an umbrella legislation for workers in the unorganised sector, have been emanating from different governments, almost at the rate of more than one per year, in addition to those formulated by the Second National Labour Commission, the National Campaign Committee, the National Centre for Labour, the National Advisory Council and the NCEUS itself.

The NCEUS set up in 2004, headed by Arjun Sengupta, rightly submitted two separate drafts, one on conditions of work and livelihood promotion and the other on social security,   common to all unorganised workers.

These Bills had provisions on all core labour standards of the ILO — ie safe and humane conditions of work,   freedom from exploitation, guaranteed minimum wages, equal remuneration for women, right to organise and assurance of floor-level social security.

Dual role

However, following suggestions, the NCEUS came up with two fresh composite Bills in 2007, one for agricultural and the other for non-agricultural workers.

The logic of some trade unions in demanding this separation is unclear as an agricultural worker today is a non-agricultural worker tomorrow when he works outside during the off-season. Registration of the same worker under two different Acts may lead to confusion. A better separation may have been between wage-workers and self-employed workers.

However, on May 24, the Union Cabinet reportedly set aside the draft Bills and decided on the formation of a National Advisory Board only to draft mere “schemes” for the unorganised sector without legislative and financial backing, thus  reducing social security from a “right” to “charity”. In the wake of protests over this, it has now passed on the Bill to a Group of Ministers for review.

Despite fulsome pride at eight per cent growth in the GDP and bloated rhetoric about “inclusive growth and equity” at the 60th anniversary of Independence, it appears that the powers-that-be   are grudging the miserable poor of this country even crumbs, leave alone a rightful share in the pie.

(The writer is a trustee of CIVIC Bangalore)