WORKERS IN INDIA

Read about the pension scheme about a while ago, the old pension scheme is for all government employees and it offers a lifetime pension along with a 10% hike, the new pension scheme is different in the sense it doesn't offer a lifetime pension but the government is exploring to offer 50% of the last drawn salary. But this is only with regards to government employees, the bigger question is what about the rest of 85% of the workers which are largely in the unorganized sector ? What do they get ? What is the worth of an Indian Worker ? I think and i understand a few things about the market right now, most people don't have any sort of social assistance program when they retire.

Worth of an Indian Worker in all fairness is nothing in my opinion. Most people suffer at the hands of the company they are employed in. Long working hours, Wages not up to the mark and lack of safety in the environment they work in. Recent example of more than 4,700 Workers who died in Qatar during the construction of the stadiums and maintenance for the FIFA WORLD CUP 2022 reminds us of what the life is for a worker who is trying to make ends meet. Whilst i write this from my comfortable reclining chair thinking about how disdain the situation must be, someone probably has died of either a faulty equipment or a safety check which wasn't considered on time. Prominent Examples come to my mind, a very famous one is the Union Carbide Bhopal Gas Tragedy which took the lives of almost 8000 people and left hundred of thousands maimed. Union Carbide a US company failed to install several safety mechanisms which ironically were in their US Plant at Virginia. 

Coming to the solutions now, as i have discussed the problems above government did enact New labor Codes as recently as in 2020. Some of the important provisions are - 

1.A right for minimum wages and timely payment which promotes inclusive development.

2.Provisions for an annual health check up which in my view was very important this promotes life expectancy and a workers capacity to work more which in turn leads to better savings in the long run.

3.Provision of Re-skilling of workers as in an ever changing market skilling is something which should be of paramount importance. 

These are the provisions i could think of and so to speak they don't look bad on paper but my question is who is responsible to ensure that these are followed ? Civil Organisations, NGOs, Elected Representatives all have a very important role to play. 

The talk of reaping the demographic dividend is always in the news these days with special emphasis on skilled workers and adopting technology to be among the top performing countries in the world. I genuinely believe before we look at reaping the demographic dividend we should also look at making sure the worker environment is safe and sound. Otherwise the worker might be skilled for sure but sooner or later he might be killed.