The Hindu 02.02.2011
Draft prepared to deal with urban unemployment
Dealing with the problem of urban unemployment, Hazards Centre and civil
society organisations along with Central trade unions have come out
with a draft for a National Urban Right to Work Act.
After consultations and studies held among
representatives of different organisations it was agreed that urban
employment was distinctly different from rural livelihoods. Three broad
categories of work in the urban areas were identified — wage
employment, self-employment and under or unemployment. The organisations
also felt the need to emphasise “Right to Work” rather than an
employment guarantee scheme like the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act and to specify the “living wages” that every worker should be
entitled to.
“The NREGA completes five years on February 2 this
year…[but] ironically, it is the implementing agencies that are trying
to undermine it,” said Nikhil Dey of Mazdoor Kisaan Shakti Sangathan,
calling attention to the lack of a similar scheme for urban areas.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Hazards
Centre director Dunu Roy said: “In urban areas, the unorganised sector
forms a major part [of employment], but is not covered by the Labour
Act. So the work they do is broadly considered illegal.”
All India Trade Union Congress secretary Satya Narayan
Thakur stressed the need for legal identity of the informal sector and
suggested State-level conferences on the lines of the National Labour
Conference be held on a monthly basis.
The proposed draft says the “Right to Work” should be
recognised and legislated as a Fundamental Right; complementary laws
should be put in place to provide living wages and social security;
provision of secure shelter near work should be a necessity for the
urban poor; Government must assist community based self-help programmes;
norms for planning livelihoods and shelter should be put in place,
which require three basic elements of legal credit, space, and tenure;
and finally, there should be accountability and accessible grievance
redressal mechanisms.
Mr. Roy said city-centric planning should be socially
and environmentally sustainable. The draft talks about a labour card
issued irrespective of the trade of work, to establish “worker identity”
and should be recognized in both urban and rural areas.
