EDITORIALS

Insecure, Underpaid and Unsafe

Indias vast informal sector workforce is entitled to a minimum wage and job security.

ndias unorganised or informal sector workers other than

cultivators constitute over 72% of the workforce. This huge
workforce has seen little change in its social security
despite successive central governments putting in place a variety of programmes. According to the latest data estimates
made by the National Sample Survey Office from its 201112
survey of the informal sector 79% of informal sector workers do not have a written employment contract, 72% of them
do not receive any social security benefits, and 71% are not entitled to paid leave. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
government of 19992004 had in 2004 launched modest old
age pension and health insurance schemes, which did not
go anywhere. Subsequently, the United Progressive Alliance
governments National Commission for Enterprises in the
Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) came up in 2007 with substantive
and ambitious proposals for social security. But only a weak
set of schemes were put in place after the enactment of the
Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008. Modest
the schemes may have been but in the new legislation
they had to be monitored by national and state advisory
boards. Had implementation of the 2008 act at least ensured
proper coverage and monitoring, it could have been said to
go some way in looking after the interests of the informal
sector workers. Critiques and analyses of the acts implementation, however, tell a dismal story over the six years since
its enactment.
In keeping with tradition, the second iteration of the NDA
government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has decided to
come up with its own new social security programme. We have
news that the Ministry of Labour and Employment will undertake an all-India drive to enrol workers in the unorganised
sector to provide a social security net through smart cards
called You Win, which will provide facilities including cash,
health and pension benefits. But, at the same time, the Minister
of State for Labour and Employment, Bandaru Dattatreya,
informed the Lok Sabha in December 2014 that there was no
proposal to extend benefits like the Employees Provident Fund,
Employees State Insurance, gratuity and pension facilities to
all unorganised sector workers.
The term informal sector worker covers those who work in a
variety of occupations and enterprises at home, in small
enterprises and even in formal enterprises, the common
8

characteristic being the informal nature of their employment.

Even as the informal sector keeps expanding and drawing a
larger and younger workforce within its ambit, the terms of
employment and conditions of work remain as irregular as
ever before.
The 2008 act which makes available 10 social security benefits like the Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana, the Rashtriya Swasthya
Bima Yojana, the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension
Scheme and the Janani Suraksha Yojana among others does
have a number of shortcomings. Under the act, the government
is not compelled to draw up new welfare schemes, there is no
mention of a national minimum wage, and there is no promise
to improve working conditions. Again, these social security
schemes are not designed or meant to ensure universal and fair
coverage of the intended beneficiaries. As has been pointed out
by a number of studies, the schemes are owned by different
ministries and departments, and they overlap between state
and central agencies. As a result, the data on eligibility and
entitlement is difficult to access and assess, identification
criteria of intended beneficiaries can and do change and the
cumulative consequence is that workers have to spend time
and energy at the cost of their daily earnings in applying
for and claiming the benefits.
The common characteristic of work in the informal sector
is its precariousness, low wages and lack of occupational
safety with ensuing work-related ill-health. The insecurity
about jobs and wages is one of the most remarked upon
features by those who have tried to organise them. The
minimum wages fi xed by state governments suffer at the
level of implementation, with women and migrant workers
bearing the brunt of corruption and the lack of a well-run
grievance redressal forum. It goes without saying, therefore,
that the introduction and implementation of a national
minimum wage is critically important alongside putting in
place punitive measures to target corruption and irregularities in payment.
The central government would do well to target the lacunae
in the 2008 act and streamline the design and applicability of
the social security schemes. There is no shortage of literature
and recommendations should the will to do so be present.
Without the basic guarantee of work security and minimum
wages, the best sounding schemes are meaningless.
february 14, 2015

vol l no 7

EPW

Economic & Political Weekly