THE PLIGHT OF UNORGANISED WORKFORCE

When it is discussed about the topic of labour environment, only the organised sector is taken into consideration often. What is left unattended usually is the unorganised sector in which the majority of the labour population of the country resides.

- Vignesh S.G Sub-Editor, Kochi, India

India is a growing economy. Definitely, its abundant labour force is its strength. The country is comparatively younger than the rest of the countries in the world. That reality speaks a lot about the country’s potential. The future of the country largely relies on the level of hard work the Indian workforce is ready to exert. There is no way a country like India can progress with an unhappy workforce.

The Indian workforce can be broadly categorised as: the organised workforce and the unorganised workforce. The situation of the former is far better than the latter. When the organised workforce grabs whatever they want with the power of their collective bargain capability, the unorganised workforce struggles to protect even their basic rights like the right to minimum wage, the right to job security, the right to social security and the right to health insurance.

The big question that emerges at this point is how much secure the country’s informal workforce is. This is the most irrelevant question to be asked to a country which is mired almost completely in the concept of free market. In this juncture, the labour laws that the country is supposed to nourish are seen as hindrances to the country’s growth as a free market. The country remains happily in the tight embrace of globalisation. It is less likely to break that hug any time soon. The longer it stays the shorter its commitment towards its labour population becomes, as the process of the dilution of the labour laws is seen as an inevitable sacrifice to be made to protect the longevity of the, so called, sweet embrace.