Unorganised labourers contribute a lot to the economy when they work as agricultural workers, domestic workers, construction workers, causal and temporary workers in manufacturing organisations. They are deprived of minimum wages, better and safe working conditions and a life with dignity though they are responsible for making others’ lives better and qualitative.
In most of the cases, social security is a daydream for them. Their living is always within unhygienic and unsafe environment though they work for comfortable living for others. Doing many hazardous jobs, they help development of the country. Available as cheap labourers, they are exploited because they are not organised. Livelihood is thepriority for them. They are not aware of laws and regulations; they only see for a square meal a day. It is a matter of concern because enacted legislations are not enough to make their lives safe and qualitative.
The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) terms the ‘informal sector’ as (a) all private unincorporated enterprises (informal enterprises) or households engaged in the production and sale of goods and services, and (b) enterprises with employment size below a pre-determined threshold (SNA,1993).
In India, the term ‘unorganised sector’ denotes the informal sector is ‘unorganised sector’ and informal workers are called as ‘unorganised workers’. In India, unorganised workers play a major role in the economic development.
According to the National Commission for Enterprises in Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) Report-2006, approximately 92 per cent of workers are engaged in unorganised sectors. They are mostly engaged in agriculture, construction, manufacturing industries, trade, transport, financial and personal services, domestic services, gig workers, platform workers, migrant workers .
These workers contribute at least 50 per cent to the GDP of the country. Though the sector has a major share in the economic development of the country, the workers involved in the process are highly vulnerable because they work in unhygienic conditions, get lower wages, work for excess working hours, do not have social security and also do not have properly-structured unions to fight for their causes. This is because they are causal or part-time workers and the work they do is intermittent in nature. In most cases, they are exploited by contractors, subcontractors because they are not directly employed and the employer is not known to them.
India’s social security legislations include the Employees’ Compensation Act, 1923; the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961; the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948; the Employees’ Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 and the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 and the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008.
These legislations provide the social security benefits like medical facilities, employment injury benefits, insurance, pension and gratuity to the industrial and factory workers who are organised. But they do not provide the protection to all the workers.
It is a fact, the Government of India and different State Governments are committed to protect and safeguard the interests of workers while upholding the dignity of labour multifarious plans are there to have financial inclusion and social security coverage for the unorganised workers.
By giving the top priority, especially for the vulnerable class, the Union Budget 2015-16 announced "Universal Social Security Coverage to All" as a testimony to its commitment to social protection. The Direct Benefit Transfer has been launched in a big way.
The social security schemes in India cover only a very small segment of the organised workforce, which may be defined as workers who are having a direct regular employer-employee relationship within an organisation.
Out of an estimated workforce of about 397 million, only 28 million are having the benefit of formal social security protection. The welcoming steps made by the Government of India in the field of labour include consolidating the new Labour Code instead of number of labour laws.
The Code on Wages received assent of President on 8-8-2019. Industrial Relations Code, 2020; Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020; Code on Social Security, 2020 consolidate nine existing labour laws and also received assent of the President on 28.09.2020 and was published in gazette on 29.9.2020. The existing social security laws could not achieve the target as expected due to several constraints like the limited numbers of enforcement officers, insufficient financial support by the Central and State Governments, exploitative nature of employers and lack of awareness among the workers. The laws regarding social security have been amended and are likely to be enforced shortly by the Central and State Governments.
Much stress has given in the Code on Social Security, 2020 by bringing the labour laws under one umbrella while giving due importance to the workforce of unorganised and organised sectors.
Looking at the earlier shortcomings, it is urged that proper mechanisms be developed at the Central and State levels so that the new provisions of social security fulfil the objectives of the laws. Exclusive attention to ensure more social security coverage of the unorganised workers should be there from the States and the Centre.
The subject of labour in India belongs to the Concurrent List in the Constitution; so, the Central and State Governments and the different stakeholders should be involved in the due process of ensuring social security of unorganised workers.
More awareness programme should be initiated than earlier in remote as well as urban areas about the various schemes so that the workers in these sectors know about the benefits of social security and fight for their own rights and dues.
(Dr Tripathy is Professor in PM&IR and Das is Assistant Professor in PM&IR)