The migrant crisis during the pandemic highlighted the vulnerabilities faced by migrants. Recently, the Supreme Court issued an important judgment towards the welfare of migrants. The judgment mandated a portal for the registration of all informal/migrant workers.

Azim Premji University’s State of Working India Report 2021 presents a survey of surveys along with the findings of its own studies. Apart from job losses, it reports deterioration in the quality of work, indebtedness as a coping strategy, and lower incomes compared to pre-lockdown levels, pushing hundreds of millions of households into poverty.

While circular migrants were the hardest hit, the effects were disproportionately large for the poorest households, and women and young workers. Other than the PDS, the social protection net provided protection to few households, and the benefit of the extended schemes also remained restricted, particularly for migrant workers. A supreme court judgement of 30 July 2020* recognizes the miseries of migrants and the need of social schemes for them.

Another recent judgement of the Supreme Court addressed the plight of migrant labour on June 29, 2021. The judgment was limited in scope, confined to the framework of existing social security schemes, but it was notable for two main reasons. The judgment recognised that there was the large-scale exclusion of migrant workers and other informal workers from existing schemes due to the lack of their registration and outdated eligibility lists. The judgment connected informal workers and migrant workers, both of whom experience exclusion, and mandated registration of workers should be fully operational before July 31.

Nearly a decade and a half ago, the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) had pointed out that the circular migrant workers were a disadvantaged segment among informal workers. At present, these circular migrant workers comprise nearly 60 percent of occupationally vulnerable workers outside agriculture.

NCEUS** had advocated a comprehensive law for the protection of the rights of all informal workers, including migrants, home workers, and domestic workers.
It had also recommended a universal registration mechanism based on self-declaration, with the issuance of a smart social security card, and a National Minimum Social Security Package available to all informal workers through the law, within a definite time frame.

In drafting the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, which was approved by Parliament in December 2008, and took out the mandatory elements of the NCEUS’s proposals. It is now expected that the supreme court judgements and criticism shall force the government to act according to recommendations.

Investment in social protection is not charity, instead, it is an investment in workers’ productivity and equitable growth. Even the United Nations mooted a social protection floor (SPF) initiative after the global financial crisis. The social protection floor (SPF) is the first level of social protection in a national social protection system. Estimates show that the central government’s expenditure on all major social protection programmes declined from 1.96 percent of GDP in 2008-09 to 1.6 percent in 2013-14 and to only 1.28 percent in 2019-20. Further, India does not have an identifiable employer and a contributory social insurance framework.

Policy-makers must provide a minimum level of guaranteed social security/social protection for all informal workers and their households within a definite time frame. The government has to take steps to achieve a universal SPF in India. To achieve that, the government has to spend more on social protection and embrace ILO’s Recommendation 202 on SPF***.

* https://indiankanoon.org/doc/97877056/

** http://sanhati.com/articles/8325/

*** https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_INSTRUMENT_ID:3065524

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

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