The Wire:
National: Sunday, October 28, 2018.
It
has been almost five years since the passing of the Prohibition of Employment
of Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act. The highly advertised
‘Swachh Bharat Mission’, which has even won international awards for Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, has been on for three years. However, the number of
people dying as they clean our sewers remains appallingly high and frequent. As
many as 1,790 people have lost their lives in the last five years, since the
passing of the Act in 2014. To highlight this excruciating contradiction,
bereaved families of victims came together in Chennai on October 24 to demand
that the practice of manual scavenging is ended immediately.
The
demonstration was organised by the Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA) and other
groups involved in the fight against manual scavenging. Ramon Magsaysay Award
winner Bezawada Wilson and Thol Thirumavalavan, leader of the Viduthalai
Chiruthaikal Katchi, lent their support to the families. They spoke of the
numerous efforts by SKA and other Dalit organisations to end this hazardous,
inhuman and casteist tradition of forcing people to clean sewers and dry
toilets, yet the practice remains rampant. The surviving victims of manual
scavenging and the families that have lost their breadwinners discussed in
painful details the cost it has taken on their social and financial lives.
There was also a discussion of the travails of obtaining the cash compensation
for the kin of victims. The lawyers and activists spoke of the numerous
instances when the police failed to and even refused to file cases under the
revised act, letting the perpetrators evade legal penalties.
Even
as the struggle against manual scavenging remains robust on the streets, the
political leadership of the government and the executive bureaucracy remain
lethargic. Charges of under reporting numbers of registered manual scavengers
and delaying the process persist.
Feminisation
of agriculture: A report from Gujarat
Our
agriculture sector is facing acute distress at the point of production. This
has been a chronic condition for decades. A new study by the Gujarat Institute
of Development Research has found that an increasing number of women are taking
over farm work as men move out of agricultural jobs. The study, which covers 16
villages in four districts in Gujarat, found that over 65% of the women and 44%
of the men are employed in farming. However, this feminisation of farming does
not mean women have greater control over agriculture as only 3% of the women
own land in their name and of these, 1.3% seem to be benami (proxy owners). The
study also finds that the increase in the proportion of women in agricultural
employment has only depressed their wage further, and has not improve household
work-sharing. Thus, the agrarian distress is only increasing the burden on the
women in rural Gujarat.
EPFO
data and the instability of India’s formal employment sectors
The
Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has released data on the number
of workers who have dropped out of EPFO in the last one year. This has been a
crucial piece of missing data since the Government of India ditched the
quarterly employment survey (QES) in favour of payroll data for statistical
information on jobs. The data shows that 91 lakh workers dropped out of EPFO
last year, of whom 18.5 lakh have re-registered. This means nearly 70 lakh
dropped out of formal employment last year. The organisation did not provide
reasons for them dropping out nor can it supply that information as it is not
recorded anywhere. Given the inability to assess if this points to a erosion of
formal employment, academicians and policy people have sought a more through study
of this phenomenon.
EPFO
recorded that nearly 1.5 crore new accounts were opened between September of
and August 2018, but the interpretation that this meant new jobs were being created
was questioned by many as it could mean that previously informally employed
people could have been brought into the formal system, as well as a result of
incentives offered by the labour ministry to small companies to register with
the EPF.
Haryana
roadways employees strike on high gear as other unions join stir
With
negotiations between the Haryana government and roadways employees failing to
resolve the contentious move to privatise the system, the workers extended
their strike further. Adding to the crisis, in a move of solidarity, other
government- and state-managed enterprises saw their employees going on leave en
masse. This marks a major shift of strategy and underpins the extent to which
the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state has alienated the workers.
While unions have claimed that over 1.5 lakh employees from local bodies to
power utilities will go on leave in support of the demands of the roadways
employees, Chief Minister Manohar Khattar has argued for privatisation. Workers
have also alleged corruption in the award of tenders for this purpose.
More
of the same: Oragadam’s continuing labour unrest
It
is now more than a month since the workers in the Yamaha plant near Chennai
laid down their tools after two of their colleagues were ‘unjustly’ dismissed.
Since then, Royal Enfield workers have also struck work. The issue is nowhere
close to being resolved in spite of efforts by the Tamil Nadu government and
labour department to resolve the issue. This week saw another major rally of
the combined workforce, totalling nearly 2,500, being thwarted by the police.
The workers wanted to take their case to the collector and demand an
investigation into the companies for violating high court orders, but found
themselves being packed into detention.
The
workers also received support from various quarters, including workers from
Hosur factories as well as IT employees. However, the media coverage has been
lacking.
The
physical toll of pregnancy discrimination
The
New York Times investigated the struggle of women who have to continue doing
heavy work even while carrying children because employers reject their requests
for lighter workloads. Read the story with accompanying graphics here.
“Only
29% districts have local committees to address sexual harassment at workplace”
An
extensive RTI-based study by the Martha Farrell Foundation that ran from 2016
to 2018 found that most districts either could not or would confirm the correct
implementation of the the 2013 Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace
(Prevention, Prohibition, Redressal) Act. Indian Express wrote, “As per the
Act, every District Officer shall constitute in the district concerned a
committee to be known as the local committee to receive complaints of sexual
harassment from women.”
Government
forms group of ministers to look into sexual harassment at workplace
The
Narendra Modi government has constituted a group comprising Rajnath Singh,
Nirmala Sitharaman, Nitin Gadkari and Maneka Gandhi to “examine the existing
legal and institutional frameworks for dealing with matters of sexual
harassment of women at the workplace.” Clearly a response to the #MeToo
movement, it is not clear what problems it will tackle and in what timeframe.
Mandsaur:
nothing has changed 17 months after the protest, say farmers
Reporting
from Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, where in August 2017, six farmers participating
in a large agitation were shot by the police, Newsclick reported that farmers
are still complaining of not receiving the correct MSP and that the Swaminathan
Commission’s recommendations have not been implemented. The Madhya Pradesh
government announced a special scheme after the agitations but the interviewed
farmers didn’t seem happy, complaining that the main benefit still went to
traders. “Businessmen are fetching all the profits, and farmers are still poor.
If this scenario does not change, there could be another agitation which would
be more intensive than the previous one,” said farmers’ leader Amritlal
Patidar.
The
human cost of the new Istanbul airport
The
Turkish effort to build a third international airport in Istanbul has taken a
heavy human toll. The new airport is set to open on October 29, but the race to
complete it on time has forced workers to suffer unduly long working hours,
delayed payments and above all numerous fatal accidents.
The
issue of workers’ death came into the media spotlight after an onsite accident
led workers to protest. The Turkish government has officially tallied the
number of deaths at 27 but activists have said that the actually number is
closer to 40. On the other hand, the workers count over 400 accidents that have
been covered up by the administration. Following the protests, over 400 workers
were detained and the rest were forced to work. Even the military was rushed in
to quell the resistance and enforce discipline. A court formally convicted 24
workers.
Why
charter school teachers are preparing for a historic strike vote
An
essay by Jesse Sharkey, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, outlines how,
in the wake of large-scale strikes in the states of West Virginia, Arizona and
Kentucky, the teachers of Chicago are gearing up for their own decision. But
these teachers are not part of the standard public school system. Instead, they
will be teaching at the cities’ charter schools. Sharkey writes, “Charter operators
in Chicago now receive 8 percent more funding per pupil than CPS schools, yet
wages languish as low as 30 percent or more below the CPS scale. Like educators
in traditional schools, educators in charter schools are the real innovators,
and they are best positioned to innovate when they have the protections of a
strong contract.”
How
to successfully set a minimum wage in India
Vidhya
Soundarajan of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, argues that the
“minimum wage for construction workers helps raise their wages and increases
employment in this sector… because the domestic and the construction sector in
India are monopsonistic in nature.” Read more here.
It’s
time for a bonus: The historical review of the ‘bonus’ struggles by plantation
workers
This
is the time of the ‘bonus’. The grand festivals of the east, Durga Puja and
Diwali, are around the corner. The workers await the conclusion of talks
between unions and owners over the quantum. These ‘deferred wages’ have become
crucial for workers to sail through the festival season. GroundXero published
an anecdotal review of the struggle for bonuses among tea plantation workers,
the attempts by the state and owners to deny the workers these bonuses and
workers’ enduring struggles in this regard. The article concludes by discussing
the workers’ anxieties as they face the danger of losing their usual (nearly
20%) bonuses because of the Gorkhaland struggles. Though the workers
participated in this ‘identity’ dominated struggle, those who led the movement
or the middle classes that populated the sub-nationalist struggle have failed
to stand by the workers. Is there a lesson here for the working class?
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