India: A Country Standing on Crossroad of Progress & Complexity

Sangeeta Sambhi, Keekli Intern

India is a country, which is situated in the South Asian continent, sharing the unfortunate privilege of being the second most populous country, after China, and, being the seventh largest country, in square meters. Aforementioned, India being the second most populous country, it makes it obvious for it to be supplanted with ample amount of labour force. A hint of the word labour market would indicate an institution where the demand for and supply of labour intersects with each other. It is important to understand that the demand is placed by the employer, and the supply is offered by the labourer, a person seeking monetary incentive, in exchange for some decent work. Labour market is a platform, where both the employer and the labourer are in a state of mutual competitiveness. The employers compete to hire the best of human capital, and, the labourer compete to find a job that best describes their needs.

Raking the numbers from winsome statistics, it is indicated that as per 2021, India’s labour force consisted of 471 million labourers. When compared to the numerics of 2020, the amount of labour force stood at five million. To be specific, the labour market in India is driven heavily by the unorganised sector. Around 83% of the labour force gets employed in the unorganised sector, but it is alarming to know that exactly 92.4% of them, work as informal labourers, who do not have a written account of their credentials and paid leaves.  Changes in employment status are linked to the process of structural transformation, as resources, i.e., capital and workers are moved from low to high-productivity sectors. Although this has been a characteristic feature of the development processes of other parts of East and Southeast Asia, in India, the shift from agriculture to manufacturing sector has not yet taken place to the same extent, as it has in other countries. Taking a long-term perspective, the employment has grown faster for men, at 1.9% annually. Whereas, on the same lapse of responsibility, the annual growth rate for women has been petite, merely at 0.3%.

On analysing what kind of labour market India operates on, and the bifurcation of the gender ratio unemployment, the miseries of the labourers start to be transparent. From knowing that the growth rate for men and women stand at different parts of the same scale of measurement, it is inferred, rather observed that there is a huge gap ratio that exists in the domain. Like this, there have been multiple anomalies in that have hindered the fidelity of the Indian work force. Where at some places, the work hours agreed upon exceeded the work hours for which a labourer was entitled to work, likewise, many other across boundaries and borders were denied their right to collect the minimum wage rate. In order to lessen the misery of labourers, the labour laws were introduced in the year of 1843.

The very first sight of liberty to form trade unions, and freedom of working as per one’s skill, were granted to the Indian labour, under the British Raj, sheltered by the Indian Slavery Act of 1843. Thereafter, the claimers of free India introduced the Minimum Wages Act, in 1948. Since then, every few months, years, new provisions are added to the existing laws, in order to encircle their lives with the protection of social security. Article 19(1)(c) of the Indian Constitution gives the labourers to form trade unions, and increase their bargaining power. Similarly, a series of twenty nine such labour laws has been followed as a code of conduct, to save both privileged, and not so privileged from falling prey to the shackles of being deceived. Other laws, such as; the right to take rest for one hour, after a six hour’s shift, paid maternity leaves, and, protection from sexual harassment, also find their existence in the twenty-nine enlisted laws.

Till now, we have analysed the history of labour laws, and how, they have been of fundamental importance in securing the rights of the labour force, whose arduous contributions decides if the economy progresses or represses. Over the decades, it was observed that the number of laws were more, but the beneficiaries derived from it, were less. Hence, the Central Government, along with the National Council on Labour (NCL), decided to categorise the rights of the labour force, under five main heads. The amended labour laws have been simplified and modernised in the following ways:

1. The labourers have been motivated to increment their bargaining power.
2. Timely payment of wages, according to the amount of work done.

• At a time, a company can only employ a maximum of 100 labourers, once its financial feasibility of how they would manage to renumerate the labour force, is approved by the government. However, the companies have protested the number to be increased to 300.

1. The labourer should be accustomed to safe working environment, along with wage provided with the kind of work he is trained in doing.
2. Forceful rent-seeking activity of the inspectors will be kept under check. Ensuring to shelter maximum number of under-privileged under the umbrella of social security and medical securities, like, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PM-JAY).

Overall, the history and present scenario of the labour laws have been at the crossroads of being both progressive and complex. But recent attempt of simplifying them, have made their application at ground level much easier than before. As the statistics showcase that the number of people unemployed reduced by 30%, it gives a thumbs up hint to the policy makers to further modernise and reduce the complexity of having multiple laws. When the question is of making an impact comes up, the only way to execute it, is by following a stream-lined approach.