Labour Issues in India - brief overview

Absenteeism and Labour Turnover

For many industries, lack of trained labour force is a problem. However, these
problems are compounded by the fact that there are multitudes of
unemployed potential labourers who, however, do not have the adequate
skills for the job. Additionally, many do not also have the means to market
themselves, or to make themselves available for jobs. Hence, lack of
availability of labour is not merely a demand-supply problem, it has deeper
socio-economic roots that need to be looked at from various perspectives.

However, in many organized sectors where the demand for labour has been
effectively met, absenteeism and huge turnover of labourers bring about their
own problems. In many cases, absenteeism is prevalent in PSUs and
government owned organizations. Causes are many, and include unionism,
lack of ownership and participation, availability of alternate employment,
misuse of benefits and remuneration and sometimes, lack of effective
management control.

Child labour
According to the 1991 Census, the number of working children in the country
was
of the order of 11.28 million. The existence of child labour in hazardous
industries continues to be a great problem in India. Non-availability of
accurate, au thentic and up-to-date data on child labour has been major
handicap in planned intervention for eradication of this social evil. However,
efforts are underway to modify and improve the existing National Child Labour
Project. A major activity undertaken under this scheme is the establishment of
special schools to provide non-formal education, vocational training,
supplementary nutrition, stipends, health care, etc. to children withdrawn from
employment in hazardous industries.

However, this is not a problem that can be solved merely by legislation. Again,
a socio-economic problem with deeper roots into the socio-economic strata of
the backward states of India (particularly the Bimaru states), child labour is
said to be only the symptom of the larger problem – the prevailing inequality in
rural Indian society, particularly these states of the country.
Recently, hundreds of children were freed after action by the Mumbai police
and some NGOs from zari factories in Mumbai city. Zari work (fine decorative
embroidery crafted by hand) calls for delicate, small and nimble fingers, and
hence child labourers are often recruited from the poorer areas of the country.
Uneducated and often compelled by their poor parents and relatives, these
children are transported to the big cities by unscrupulous middle-men who sell
them to factory owners. Investigations by NGOs revealed that these kids were
malnourished and worked for more than 12 hours a day, often without seeing
the outside world for days on stretch. Such inhuman conditions left the
children malnourished and in some extreme cases, partially blind (zari work is
also a strain in the eyes, compounded by poor light and ventilation in these
factories).

It is to be noted that even after the rescue, many children chose to stay back,
citing starvation and abject poverty back home as less preferable to the
inhuman conditions at these factories. Such is the condition of the child
labourer in India.

Contract Labour
The subject of contract labour has generated much heated debate in the
economic and industrial circles in India.

For a poor, uneducated and marginalized Indian labourer, contract labour is

often better than none at all. However, the labourer often signs himself off to
life-long penury with little hope for advancement and improvement of
conditions.

However, for an industry or a business, the legalities involved in contract

labour (particularly with reference to the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947) disable
them to lay-off labourers, solve labour related issues, or even close down
unprofitable ventures. In a greater economic scenario, this has caused the
Indian textile industry huge losses – and has let countries like China, Pakistan
and even Bangladesh ahead.