No end of woes for unorganised sector labour as 3rd wave peaks; assurance in abundance but actions too little

The assurance given to the country that the Centre as well as state governments were keeping a close watch on the scenario of “exodus of workers” and were fully prepared to deal with any situation, has also been widely reported. It is another matter that only a selected or privileged few might be knowing what “fully prepared” means and how a worker losing job and livelihood may access this government’s “fully prepared” state. The poor suffering workers, particularly daily wagers, do not have any clue to and knowledge of taking benefit from it.What was actually claimed and assured were in fact only play of words, they are rhetoric, not reality on the ground, or else it would have been known by all, especially the workers who have been losing jobs, or who have been getting benefits from the government’s schemes.The review meeting was attended on virtual mode by Additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries, secretaries of state labour departments and labour commissioners of all the states/UTs, as well as officers of the Ministry of Railways and Department of Food and Public Distribution participated in the meeting, but the outcome was far short of expectation of the labour force.The statement of the Union Ministry of Labour was merely of the technical nature. The statement is technically correct that the state governments informed that barring night curfews and weekend curfews at a few places where COVID cases are rising, there were no restrictions on construction activities, business activities, running of shops and industrial activities. They may be right that there were “no restriction”, however, it does not mean that business, constructions and industrial activities were also running normally. It is strange that the high level review meeting did not actually reviewed the “actual state of the labour market or labour engagement situation” on the ground.



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