The 56th annual conference of the Indian Society of labour Economics (ISlE) was inaugurated on the 18th Dec by lord Meghnad Desai, Professor at london School of Economics and Member of the Upper House of Parliament, England. The three-day conference has been organised at BIT, Mesra.
The conference has been organised by BIT, Mesra along with the Institute of Human Development, Eastern Regional Centre (IHD-ERC).
In his very enlightening opening remarks, lord Desai spoke of the need to relook at the labour economics related discussions in terms of the economics of work, evaluation of the value of work performed in the unpaid sectors.
The issue of unpaid work was also raised by president of ISlE, Indira Hirway. She elaborated the need to link unpaid work with mainstream economy and include their work in calculations of national accounts.
The lectures were followed by keynote presentations on the three broad themes of the conference-- Inter-linkages between formal and informal labour, Demographic Dividend: challenges of employment and employability and Industrial Relations in India in terms of sectoral and regional patterns. The speakers set the tone of the discussions to take place on these issues over the course of the conference.
Eminent speakers on the first day of the conference included professor from IIM-Ahmedabad, Errol D’Souza; chairperson of School of livelihoods and Development, Hyderabad, Padmini Swaminathan; J Krishnamurthy who was earlier associated with IlO, Geneva; professor at Maryland University, USA, Sonalde Desai and professor at XlRI, Jamshedpur, Shyam Sundar.
The discussions deliberated at length on several key issues in labour economics and provided several thought provoking insights and perspectives. Several labour economists highlighted the fact that the Indian economy as also some others in the South Asian region are being subsidized by women and their unremunerated activities and yet the state policies have no laws to effectively empower and protect them.
Desai spoke of the demographic, deposit, debt and dividend the arguments centred on the need to capitalise on the newer demographic dimensions of low TFR and lower proportion of elderly in the total population, among others, and convert it into demographic dividend.
Every year, the ISlE conference holds a special lecture in memory of proffessor Vir Bahadur Singh, politician and academician, who had worked extensively on labour issues. This year, the lecture was given by senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and former Director General of FICCI Rajiv Kumar.
Kumar's lecture entitled "Manufacturing in India: Have we missed the busIJ" described how India was lagging behind in Manufacturing while other countries, notably China, were racing ahead and posed a very serious major threat to the survival of the manufacturing sector in the country. However, growth in the manufacturing sector was most vital for meeting the challenge of providing employment to the nearly 12 million people entering the workforce every year, said Kumar. He gave a ten point recommendation for the revival and growth of the manufacturing sector in the country.
Former member of the Planning Commission, Abhijeet Sen, however, remarked upon the need to exercise caution since the manufacturing sector was often accused of ignoring social and environmental concerns. Harmonsing growth of the sector with these concerns was therefore the need of the hour without which, the growth would not be sustainable, said Sen.
Director of IHD, Alakh Narayan Sharma; HoD of Management, Utpal Baul and professor Department of Management at BIT-Mesra and Organising Secretary for the event, Manju Bhagat welcomed 230 academicians from around the world during the conference.