Do we need a minimum wage law?

The number crunching over an appropriate minimum wage belies the fact that the state and industry only pay lip service to it

In April this year, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya announced that thegovernment will raise the minimum wage for contract workers to Rs.10,000 per month. It would do so, he said, through an executive order. The executive order never came. What did, however, were news reports on industry’s opposition to the proposal. In July, the proposal had been shelved.

This week, in a bid to get trade unions to call off their All India strike on September 2, the governmentagain announced a hike in minimum wages, but only for unskilled non-agricultural workers, from Rs.246 to Rs.350 per day, or Rs.9,100 per month. The central trade unions, barring the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), have dismissed the hike as meaningless and announced that they will proceed with the strike.

This chain of events raises many questions: What is an appropriate minimum wage? How does one arrive at it? Does India still need something like a minimum wage?

Many reasons have been adduced for scrapping the minimum wage. The most important one is the doxa of liberalisation, which dictates that the market and not the government should determine prices so as to preserve efficiency and competitiveness. This was the objection raised by industry and heeded by the government.

The second reason to scrap the minimum wage, especially now, is that it contradicts the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s flagship ‘Make in India’ initiative. For foreign capital to make in India, Indian labour has to remain cheaper than Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Bangladeshi labour.

Third is a logic that is popular among economic reformers: scrap it if it’s not working. Neither industry bodies nor the state nor unions can claim that the Minimum Wages Act (MWA) is seriously implemented. India anyway has still not ratified the United Nations’ Convention No. 131 (adopted in 1970) on Minimum Wage Fixing. So why not scrap the MWA?

Why have a minimum wage?

MWA is one of the first laws of independent India, legislated in 1948, even before we had a Constitution in place. Why was it enacted?

The real motive was to buy peace on behalf of a national bourgeoisie that had to manage a working class that was far more militant in those days. But there were other reasons as well. India was a poor country with a major surplus of labour. There were too many jobs where labour did not have the bargaining power to demand a wage sufficient to survive on. Conditions where employers get away with paying workers too little generate several social costs, such as poverty, malnutrition, endemic debt leading to bonded labour, and child labour, which could be avoided through fair wages.

Three levels

The Tripartite Committee on Fair Wages, appointed in 1948, defined three different levels of wages: a living wage, a fair wage, and a minimum wage. Living wage is what a human being needs to get the basic essentials of food, shelter, clothing, protection against ill-health, security for old age, etc. A fair wage is lower than the living wage and takes into account efficiency, from the employer’s perspective. Minimum wage is similar to the fair wage except in two respects: it is even lower, and has a statutory dimension. Today, there is broad consensus among patriotic businessmen and nationalist policymakers that mandating a living wage or even a fair wage for Indian workers is a ridiculous idea not worth discussing. What’s left on the table is the minimum wage. How much should it be?

The resolution passed at the 15th Indian Labour Conference in 1957 mandates taking into account five factors for calculating the minimum wage: 1. The wage must support three consumption units (individuals); 2. Food requirement of 2,700 calories a day; 3. Clothing requirement of 72 yards per worker’s family; 4. Rent for housing area similar to that provided under the subsidised housing scheme; 5. Fuel, lighting and miscellaneous items of expenditure to constitute 20 per cent of the minimum wage. In 1991, the Supreme Court called for adding another 25 per cent to the wage yielded by the above calculation in order to take into account children’s education, medical requirements, etc.

If calculated using these parameters, some estimates put the minimum wage at Rs.26,000 per month. This is the amount Central government employee unions are demanding from the Seventh Pay Commission, which had fixed their minimum wage at Rs.18,000.

Minimum wage via pay parity

But figures such as Rs.26,000 or even the Rs.10,000 mooted by the Labour Ministry sound fantastical in comparison to the official minimum wage in some parts of India, which can dip as low as Rs.1,650 a month (Puducherry, agriculture, 2013). Typically, the actual minimum wage is close to or less than Rs.4,800, currently the National Floor Level Minimum Wage.

Ironically enough, despite the MWA not being taken seriously by anyone, even a pro-reform government such as the one in power dare not speak of scrapping it, preferring instead to undermine it.

As A.K. Padmanabhan of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) puts it, “If a government is serious about ensuring that contract workers get better wages, it would amend the Minimum Wages Act to stipulate that permanent and contract workers get the same pay for same work. But this government has not touched the Act.”

Even in post-liberalisation India, no industry lobby can openly argue that contract workers should be paid less than permanent workers for the same work. The NDA government has a brute majority in the Lok Sabha. No party in the Rajya Sabha will oppose an amendment mandating pay parity between permanent and contract workers. So, if there is one ‘labour reform’ that can be said to have universal consensus as well as logic on its side, it is this simple amendment. In one stroke, it would raise the minimum wage of contract workers by bringing it on a par with permanent worker wages, and encourage their regularisation. But neither the United Progressive Alliance in its time nor the NDA now is interested in passing such an amendment. It is not hard to fathom why, or who benefits from this pay differential.

sampath.g@thehindu.co.in

Keywords: Labour Ministry, minimum wage, labour unrest, contract workers, Minimum Wages Act (MWA)

Source: The Hindu, 1-09-2016

Healthcare crisis: Short of 5 lakh doctors, India has just 1 for 1,674 people

In Odisha, a man slung his wife’s body over his shoulder and carried it 10km after being denied an ambulance on August 24, 2016.

In Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, a man’s sick son died on his shoulder after being denied admission to a Kanpur hospital on August 29, 2016.

Such cases become visible when they get social media and television attention, but millions cannot access India’s overburdened hospitals and inadequate medical facilities, a crisis illustrated by the fact that India is short of nearly 500,000 doctors, based on the World Health Organization (WHO) norm of 1:1,000 population, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of government data.

With more than 740,000 active doctors at the end of 2014 -- a claimed doctor-patient population ratio of 1:1,674, worse than Vietnam, Algeria and Pakistan -- the shortage of doctors was one of the health-management failures cited by this report of a parliamentary committee on health and family welfare, which presented its findings to both houses of Parliament on March 8, 2016.

Illegal capitation fees in private medical colleges, health-services inequality between urban and rural India and disconnect between the public-health and medical-education systems were among the issues the committee investigated while probing the Medical Council of India, the 82-year-old organisation responsible for medical-education standards.

Up to 55% of India’s 55,000 doctors graduate every year from private colleges, many of which charge illegal donations, or “capitation fees”. In Tamil Nadu, it now costs a medical student from such a college Rs 2 crore to get a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree, Times Of India reported on August 26, 2016.

The imbalances begin with access to medical education.

States with nearly half the population have only a fifth of MBBS seats.

Six states, which represent 31% of India’s population have 58% MBBS seats. On the other hand, eight states, which comprise 46% of India’s population, have only 21% MBBS seats,” said an unnamed expert who deposed before the parliamentary committee.

These medical-education imbalances reflect larger public-healthcare issues. In general, poverty is correlated with the lack of healthcare. For instance, among states with the highest proportion of undernourished children, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have the worst infrastructure for institutional deliveries.

India’s poorer states have health indicators that are worse than many nations poorer than them, and India’s healthcare spending is the lowest among BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) nations, as are its health indicators.

Every year, 55,000 doctors complete their MBBS and 25,000 post graduation nationwide, said another unnamed expert. At this rate of growth, he told the committee, India should have a doctor (allopathic) for every 1250 people for a population of 1.3 billion by 2020, and one for every 1075 by 2022 (population: 1.36 billion).

“However, the committee has been informed… that doctors cannot be produced overnight, and if we add 100 medical colleges every year for the next five years, only by the year 2029 will the country have adequate (sic) number of doctors,” the second expert said.

The shortage of doctors, the report said, is despite the increase in medical colleges, from 23 in 1947 to 398 at the end of 2014. India, the report noted, has more medical colleges than any country, and 49,930 admissions were available in 2014.

While 11 new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have been added with 1,100 seats, the government has proposed an additional 4,700 MBBS seats.

As many as 5,540 MBBS seats and 1,004 PG seats have been added in the last two academic sessions, the e-book said.

Medical-education shortages manifest themselves in under-staffed public-health services nationwide: There is an 83% shortage of specialist medical professionals in community health centres (CHCs), as IndiaSpend reported in September 2015.

Public-health centres across India’s rural areas–25,308 in 29 states and seven union territories–are short of more than 3,000 doctors, the scarcity rising 200% (or tripling) over 10 years, IndiaSpend reported in February 2016.

The committee was, thus, skeptical of the government’s claims of the doctor-population ratio.

“Given the fact that the Indian Medical Register is not a live database and contains names of doctors who may have passed away or retired from active practice, by now, as well as those with a permanent address outside India and that there is no mechanism in place for filtering out such cases, the committee is highly sceptical of the ministry’s claim of having one doctor per 1,674 population,” the parliamentary report said. “In view of the above, the Committee feels that the total universe of doctors in India is much smaller than the official figure, and we may have one doctor per 2,000 population, if not more.”

Source: Hindustan Times, 1-09-2016

How Many People Are You Living With?

Talk: Osho





Everybody is born as one single individual, but by the time he is mature enough to participate in life he has become a crowd. This is almost the case with everybody . Become aware of it.If you just sit silently and listen to your mind, you will find so many voices. You will be surprised; you can recognise those voices very well. Some voice is from your grandfather, another is from your grandmother, your father, mother, the priest, teacher, neighbours, friends and enemies. All these voices are jumbled up in a crowd within you, and if you want to find your own voice, it is almost impossible; the crowd is too thick.
In fact, you may have forgotten your own voice long before. You were never given freedom enough to voice your opinions. You were always taught obedience, to say `yes' to everything that your elders were saying to you. You were taught that you have to follow whatever your teachers or priests are doing. Nobody ever told you to search for your own voice ­ “Have you got a voice of your own or not?“ So your voice has remained very subdued and other voices are very loud, commanding, because they were orders and you had followed them ­ despite yourself. Naturally only one voice is missing in you, only one person is missing in you, and that is YOU; otherwise there is a whole crowd. And that crowd is constantly driving you mad, because one voice says, “Do this,“ another voice says, “Never do that! Don't listen to that voice!“ And you are torn apart.
This whole crowd has to be withdrawn. It has to be told, “Now please leave me alone!“ Those who went away to the mountains or secluded forests were really not going away from society; they were trying to find a place where they can disperse their crowd inside. And those people who have made a place within you are obviously reluctant to leave.
But if you want to become an individual in your own right, get rid of this continuous conflict and mess within you, then you have to say goodbye to them ­ even when they belong to your respected father, mother, grandfather. It does not matter. One thing is certain: they are not your voices. They are the voices of people who have lived in their time, and they had no idea what the future was going to be. They have loaded their children with their own experience; their experience is not going to match with the unknown future.
Their child is going to face new storms, new situations, and he needs a totally new consciousness to respond.Only then is his response going to be fruitful; only then can he have a life that is not just a long drawn-out despair, but a dance from moment to moment, which goes on becoming more and more deep to the last breath.
So don't create any fight with the crowd. Let them fight amongst themselves. You, meanwhile, try to find yourself. The man who is himself, unburdened of the past, original, strong as a lion and innocent as a child ... he can reach to the stars, or even beyond; his future is golden.

70% of IIT-B students skip daily bath, 40% wish to live on with pals

Hemali Chhapia

Mumbai:





Six of 10 residents at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) showered once every two or three days, finding the “task“ taxing. A small 10% that took a bath just once a week and just about 30% took a bath everyday . This is one of the findings of the second edition of the senior survey at the institute, conducted by students, which received responses from 332 candidates of the passing-out class, including undergraduates, dual-degree students, MSc and MTech graduates.The hangover of hostel life is likely to linger long after graduation, for 40% of the residents plan to live with friends, 27% wish to go back home and 19% would like to live alone. On the other hand, 66% maintained close relations with their folks back home while 29.8% had a lower-than-average interaction with their parents.
While in Mumbai, they had ticked off quite a few items on their bucketlist.Some 52.4% had experienced the classic dream of every college student -a road trip to Goa with friends. Then, 70% travelled ticketless on a local train and 55.7%, on being inspired by the James Bond movie `Casino Royale', have played poker or blackjack.
On their marital plans, the survey found that 39.15% did not wish to dig their own grave until after five years; 31% were clueless while 21.4% wanted to marry between three and five years down the line. On religious beliefs, 39% respondents said they were believers, 21% said they identified themselves as atheists and 39% said they were agnostic.
Almost 70.5% of the respondents graduated as bachelors of technology . 33.75% received an additional minor or an honours degree or both alongside. This year's respondents had an average CPI of 7.87. 163 of them had a CPI greater than 8 while only 43 had CPI greater than 9. “A symmetric distribution across responses saw 35.7% wanting a decent CPI whereas 32.6% were unable to reach their potential,“ said Shreerang Javadekar, chief editor of Insight, the IIT-B newspaper which conducted the survey .
In terms of attendance, 39.75% said they would have attended most classes while 32.5% said they have would have preferred attending as few lectures as possible.Some 7.5% said they would have attended all classes nonetheless. Interestingly , 16.2% have never visited the institute's central library .

Source: Times of India, 1-09-2016

Corruption cases up by 5% in 2015: NCRB

Neeraj Chauhan

New Delhi





Corruption remains a scourge in the country with the number of cases reported showing a rise of 5% in 2015 over the preceding year, data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) showed.According to the NCRB, 5,867 corruption cases were reported in 2015, up from 5,577 in 2014. The only silver lining was that the annual growth rate of such cases came down -from 13.93% in 2014 to 5.1% in 2015. in 2013, 4,895 cases of corruption were registered.
By the end of 2015, 13,585 cases of corruption were under investigation, mostly related to public servant taking bribery and criminal misconduct.
The NDA, coming to power on an anti-corruption plank, has introduced several steps to curb graft in government organisations, public sector units, banks and other departments including increased oversight by the Central Vigilance Commission, streamlining government machinery by fixing accountability on officials, digitisation of government projects and policyoriented decision making.
The government amended the Prevention of Corruption Act last year to classify corruption as a heinous crime and longer prison terms for both bribe-giver and bribe-taker. The amendments also sought to ensure speedy trial, limited to two years, in corruption cases.
However, the problem is far from solved. The highest number of corruption cases were registered in Maharashtra (1,279), Madhya Pradesh (634), Odisha (456), Rajasthan (401) and Gujarat (305). Uttar Pradesh reported only 60 cases of corruption and West Bengal reported 18. Delhi reported a 50% decline in corruption cases with 31 cases in 2015, compared to 64 in 2014.
The report said 29,206 corruption cases were pending trial in courts while accused persons were acquitted or discharged in 1,549 cases in 2015.
Former CBI director Joginder Singh said there was no seriousness on curbing corruption. “If any government (state or Centre) wants to be serious about corruption, there should not be the option of taking sanction for a government official. If a person has been caught red-handed taking bribe, why is there the need for taking prosecution sanction for him. There is also need to make Prevention of Corruption Act stricter,“ he said.

Source: Times of India, 1-09-2016





Cybercrime up 2,400 times in 10 yrs

Vishwa Mohan

New Delhi:





41% More Cyber Thugs Held In 2015

With the internet and social media becoming a way of life, cybercrime numbers have steadily climbed over the years. Such crimes went up 20% last year compared to 2014, logging a 2,400% increase over the last decade.The latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report shows that cybercrime cases rose from 9,622 in 2014 to 11,592 last year, nearly onethird of the crimes committed for financial gain.
The number of people arrested in cybercrime cases rose by over 41% during the same period -from 5,752 in 2014 to 8,121 in 2015.
Besides crimes for financial gain, the motives also included cheating, insulting women, sexual exploitation and personal revenge or settling scores.
The report cited `political motives', which could be related to tarnishing the image of opponents through morphed pictures or fudged data. The report said 44 cybercrimes cases for `political motives' were reported last year.
Data theft, breach of an individual's internet banking or other service platforms through hacking, cyber stalking, digital forgery such as fabrication or destruction of electronic records were some methods used by criminals in the internet space.
An analysis of past NCRB reports revealed that the number of cybercrimes was quite low 10 years ago, with only 453 such cases reported in the country in 2006. Barring 2008 when the number of cases fell compared to 2007, the numbers have consistently risen.
Though the NCRB did not give any reason for the rising figures, they could be attributed to increasing internet penetration in the past few years. Use of internet for various services has led many to use the web for multiple purposes -be it personal and official communication, banking, teaching, e-marketing, digital lockers or social networking.
The latest NCRB report said Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Telangana reported the highest number of cybercrimes last year. All five states are home to several companies dealing with information technology and related services.
In terms of arrests, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Assam made it to the list of top five.Experts said this could be attributed to multiple people's involvement in one case.
Uttar Pradesh recorded the largest number of cybercrime cases largely because of its spread and resultant internet penetration in major cities and in the hinterland as well. The state's figures could also be high due to the IT destination of Noida which has emerged as a hub of cyberattacks in the country .

Source: Times of India, 1-09-2015

Jains top in share of graduates

Subodh Varma





The Muslim community in India has the lo west share of graduates compared with others and just half the share of the countrywide average of under 6%. The Jains continue to be the most educationally advanced community with over a quarter of its members qualified as graduate or above. But, the share of technical diploma holders is highest among Christians at 2.2%, again continuing a previous trend, with the Jains at 1.1% and the Sikhs at 0.8%.A heartening feature is that the most educationally deprived communities like Muslims tionally deprived communities like Muslims and Buddhists are surging forward with shares increasing at a faster pace than other communities when compared to a decade earlier.These details emerge from the latest release of Census 2011data on educational levels across re ligious communities. The Census Office is still in the process of releasing such specific data over five years after the headcount took place. While illiteracy has de clined and educa tional levels at the primary or secondary level have rapidly increased across all communities, at the higher levels the dead weight of the past still casts a shadow. Those of college-going age were in primary school in the early to mid-nineties and enrolment in schools was still deficient especially among Muslims. This historic deprivation is reflected in the current lag in higher education participation levels.
But even the overall share of graduates continues to be abysmally low at 6% while the technical education level at just 0.6% is appalling. Most advanced countries have a graduate share of 30-50% accompanied by a high share of technical personnel also.
The changes between 2001 and 2011 Census show that the Muslim community has seen an almost 60% increase in share of graduates compared with about 55% for Hindus. But the most striking increase is among Buddhists ­ mainly neoBuddhists who were Dalits that embraced Buddhism at the call of B R Ambedkar. The share of graduates among them has jumped by 74%. The country average is about 54% increase in the share of graduates.
The share of technical diploma holders too shows a similar change ­ the most deprived communities are surging ahead, in relative terms. Thus, among Muslims, this share increased by 81% and among Buddhists by a jaw dropping 130% compared with a countrywide average of about 68%.

Source: Times of India, 1-09-2016