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.