In March, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a strict nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, India’s migrant ...
In March, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a strict nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, India’s migrant workers suddenly came into sharp focus. As lakhs of workers began streaming down the nation’s highways in a desperate attempt to get home in the absence of public transport, media reports began to highlight the conditions in which these mostly-invisible Indians work.
Over 70% of India’s workers in the services and industry sectors have informal jobs, according to the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector. In a situation where 68% of all Indian workers earned about half the national recommended minimum wage of Rs 375 in 2017-’18, the workers in the informal sector are particularly disadvantaged. Often missing the oversight of labour laws, they lack social security and face low wages, unsanitary or hazardous work conditions and long hours.
Against this backdrop, the government’s attempt to simplify labour regulation by amalgamating 44 labour laws into four comprehensive codes, which is expected to be discussed in the session of Parliament underway, should have had a special focus on Indians employed in the informal sector – especially migrant workers.
But instead of guaranteeing greater protections to this vulnerable group, the codes fail to place...
