Reform Labour We Must -- But How?





Sometimes, the twain do meet: the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), an affiliate of the Sangh Parivar that parents the ruling BJP , and the Citu, the trade union wing of the largest communist party in India, the CPI(M). Both have said very similar things on the government's attempts to change labour laws.Coming from absolutely opposite sides of the ideological spectrum, both have opposed the Modi government's attempts to `liberalise' labour laws. In this case, it was Bandaru Dattatreya, the labour minister and BJP member from the Telangana region, who spoke on `reforming' labour laws.But what does India want to do? In what conditions will future generations of Indians work? Does any civilised nation en visage flexible labour markets sans functional social security? Should the bulk of young India find employment with delivery of online orders, flipping burgers, waiting on tables and so on? Do trade unions believe manufacturing can thrive with rigid labour laws at odds with the dynamics of contemporary production? But does being in accord with the dynamics of globalising production mean workers with no toilet breaks, no security of employment and no right to improve their lot? The challenge is to find answers to such questions that find the right balance between capital and labour.
Labour voices have been silenced over the years; trade unions have been sterilised. But without a vibrant, well-paid workforce, India will not have the domestic demand to fuel its 1.3billion-people economy . Keynes wrote about a `multiplier effect': blue-collar wage earners are consumers, their next generation the talent pool India needs in the knowledge economy tomorrow. Deprived workers are a drag in the present, and in the future. Is anybody out there listening?