Some workers were crushed on railway tracks in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. It is possible for us to have a few days of mourning or write some touching lines on social media and get the claps. But the truth is, the workers and the poor of this country have never been a part of our discourse. Sitting in South Block and state secretariats, people who used to write the future of this country have always worked to weaken the labour laws in the country—be it the BJP or the Congress. Even after the Communist Party being in power in West Bengal for decades, it is included in the most migrating states of the country, including UP and Bihar.
But once again in an era of the coronavirus, the policy-makers and the bureaucracy of the country have been exposed. The latest case is that of UP and MP. Labour laws have been postponed for three years in UP. Recently, we saw the situation in Karnataka where the government refused to let the labourers from the state after a meeting with the industrialist lobby CREDAI.
The ‘Shramik Special’, a train for them, was also canceled. It is good of social media outrage that after all round criticisms and condemnation, decision had to be withdrawn. The Railways shamelessly charged a fare from poor hungry labourers returning to their homes from different parts of the country. In many places, there were reports in the media about recovering more than the printed fare. ‘Shameless‘ because it was the Railways that donated ₹151 crore to the PM Cares Fund.
In every disaster-epidemic, this section is the most affected. Yet, the condition of the country’s labour laws is such that in the latest case, the Yogi government of UP has postponed the labour laws for 3 years.
In this, the ‘Ordinance of Temporary Exemption from Certain Labour Laws in Uttar Pradesh, 2020’ was passed. Now this ordinance has been sent to Governor Anandiben Patel for approval.
The statement issued by the UP government said that business activities had come to a complete standstill due to the nationwide lockdown implemented to deal with the coronavirus. In such a situation, this ordinance has been brought to give them momentum.
Before UP, the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh passed an ordinance allowing companies hire-and-fire policies. The ordinance was passed in a meeting chaired by Shivraj Singh Chauhan in the state on Wednesday.
Even then it was fine, but the UP government also said that this would also protect the affected interests of workers.
What, really? Indeed! Would working 12 hours instead of 8 protect labour interest, or violate human rights?
According to a report, Saheli Ghosh Roy, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, on April 8, 2020, said that construction labourer boards in 31 states and union territories have announced to give from ₹1,000 to ₹6,000 from the CESS fund, and till now about ₹2 crore–3,000 crore have been given to construction workers.
Questioning the government’s claims, the National Campaign Committee of Construction Workers (NCC-CL) in a letter written on April 14, said that figures being given are baseless. The committee claimed that the largest number of construction workers (over 1.21 crore) are in Uttar Pradesh. As of June 30, 2017, only 36 lakhs of these workers were registered with the board.
On April 5, 2020, a letter from the Principal Secretary of the Labor Department stated that the bank accounts of only 10.92 lakh labourers are available with the Uttar Pradesh Working Labourers Welfare Board. The state government has announced to give ₹1,000 to the registered labourers. That is, Uttar Pradesh can give only 109.2 crores in total. If only ₹109 crore was given in Uttar Pradesh, the state with the highest number of registrations, then how can all the states together have ₹3,000 crores.
The concessions given in the labour laws are so dangerous that they are expected to start the phase of bonded labour again. These changes are so disappointing that even the RSS’s trade organization ‘Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh’ has decided to oppose them.
BMS general secretary Virjesh Upadhyay said that this meeting can be held on Friday evening or Saturday. Upadhyay said that the trade union does not support this move of the state governments, and we will prepare an action plan to oppose it. Upadhyay said, “In India, the same labour laws are not strictly followed and whatever they are is being suspended or abolished. We will not accept it.”