The Chicagoconvention in 1884 of the Federation of Organised Trades and Labour Unionsresolved that “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labour from and afterMay 1, 1886.” Exactly 134 years later, a labourer assisting a mason inconstruction work in Mumbai walked about 1,500 km to his native villageMathkanwa in Shravasti district in Uttar Pradesh, where he died in a quarantinefacility. Ironically, his parents had named him Insaaf Ali. Ali is no more buthis case highlights the suffering and trauma of millions of daily wagelabourers who have survived in tormenting conditions and seek ‘insaaf’ fromsociety and the government. The question that stares us today, which is the timeMay begins and brings with it May Day celebrations, is this: Where is alabourer in India today? What and where is the dignity of bread labour?
Trade andlabour unions flourished all over the world after the 1884 resolution inAmerica. India has its own chequered history of trade and labour unions. Weknow that barely 20 per cent of our labour force works in the organised sector.As much as 80 per cent is in sectors and areas where often wages are not fair,security is non-existent, safety standards are poor and abour laws are violatedroutinely. There is also plethora of material that makes the case formobilising the unorganised labour and the self-employed to enable them havetheir voice heard as a collective. There have been many noteworthy attempts inorganising them with initiatives like SEWA, Gramin Bank and many others. Butall said and done, in our country, a body lender is just a mazdoor, with noother identity. And who cares for this mazdoor?. The well-known Hindi poet, thelate Dushyant Kumar, wrote in one of his gazals: Yah jism bhoj se jhuk karduhara hua hoga, main sajade mein nahi tha, aapko dhoka hua hogaa. (This bodywas bent over due to weight heaped on it, you must have got deceived, I was notin prayer).
We canreflect that 2020 is a rather unusually cruel time to celebrate the May Day.Millions of hands that were silently engaged in building our cities and townsand producing for the population, and driving our lives and prosperity andallowing us to take pride in GDP growth, are languishing on some open street orin some ramshackle unused sheds and buildings. They are queuing up twice a day,several hours each time from morning seen and in the evening from four, in thescorching heat to wait for food packets that arrive sometime after twelve noonand seven in the evening, and without guarantee that they will finally havefood for the day. Their hands that produce the wealth of India are renderedmeaningless because they have no work, and no one to rely on and nothing tofall back on.
Where arethe toilets and the baths? Where is water for frequent hand wash? It is somekind of a cruel joke played upon this species called Mazdoor. In desperation,many of them made a desperate bid to make it their villages walking with theirsmall baggage and some leftover money with women and small children. The pedalrickshaw drivers from Delhi started cycling to their villages hundreds of kmsaway in Bihar. Samaritans were there on the way, but how many could they reach?What could we do for Insaaf?
The HomeMinistry’s advisory now guides the State governments to make arrangements totake the mazdoors back in buses after May 3 to their native villages. Whatstopped the all mighty Centre with a popular and strong leader to allow this tohappen before the lockdown was announced? The image of the quick and firmdecision maker has to remain intact. Collateral damages are to be borne. But bywhom? The leader has announced that people should not rush to markets andhoard, everything will be available. This was to address whom if not the richand the middle class with ample purchasing power. The mazdoor and the kisanswere left to fend for themselves. Promises were made that money would betransferred to Jan Dhan accounts, but how much and how long would that meagreamount sustain the poor?
It is nowclear that there was no immediate urgency to impose the sudden lockdown with anadvance notice of barely four hours – announced at 8 pm; enforced at midnight!The rate of infection was known. Early action was desirable but that action,when planned, discussed and announced in advance calms nerves, smoothens theprocess and allows people not to be caught off guard and stranded, virtually,on the roads. Yet, it is the shock treatment that is required to build the imageof a decisive leader. We know that many of those who wanted to go back to theirvillages could have made it with the help of extra trains and buses. The Stateswould have responded. Money could have been transferred; supply chains andinfrastructure could have been put in place. But it would have lacked the dramaand the shock.
Given thesituation we are in now, economic recovery is the hot topic. Wise babus,economists and intellectuals are talking about the bottom-up approach! Yetthere seems to be no learning from the irreversible externalities and themaddening self-ruinous run in favour of GDP growth delivered through extremeindustrialisation and urbanisation. The Prime minister is credited with havinglaunched a Swachh Bharat Abhiyan as part of celebrations to mark the 150 yearsof the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. But this safai should be as much aboutcleanliness in our thinking process and not staying prisoner to economic modelsthat we can see have delivered exploitation of nature and of the downtrodden.
We can lookfor light in Gandhi’s way. Could we not pay a deserving tribute to make a moveto Gandhi’s idea of ‘gram swaraj’ with ‘swadeshi’ and ‘svavalamban’ as thepillars? We have science and technology with us to make the right kind ofinnovation and scale down (rather than scale up) production to a level that avillage or clusters can manage such enterprises. The land, water and forestscould be restored and regenerated to improve productivity and support thelabour force in the villages. Modern amenities can be provided; indeed, acondition would be that the demand will have to be brought down. Prof. PulinNayak of the Delhi School of Economics, renowned teacher, argues this case!COVID-19 provides an opportunity to redesign our polity and economy.
This is anopportunity if we can begin to look in a direction that we have shunned so far.Let our ‘Gram Sabhas’ have the political power and control over natural andother economic resources. The kisan and the mazdoor’s dignity has to berestored and would this not be a wonderful gift to them on this May Day?
(Dr Sudarshan Iyengar is a Gandhian economist and a former Vice Chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith, a university founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920) (Syndicate: The Billion Press, editor@theblilionpress.org)