Unorganised Forever

Nityananda Ghosh

Labour movement even in industrially advanced regions in the country has been defensive since the 1990s. And with the promulgation of four labour codes in place of old labour laws by the Modi government labour organising, more precisely Trade Union organising now seems more difficult than ever before. Already, eleven states, including some states run by opposition parties have accepted and implemented the notorious labour codes that are out and out anti-labour and more are likely to follow suit. The state of West Bengal ruled by opposition party TMC, a partner of ‘India’ bloc, is yet to officially announce its acceptance, not to speak of its implementation, but that doesn’t mean Bengal workers enjoy rights guaranteed under old Acts. It is a matter of time that they too will fall in line and implement anti-labour labour codes introduced by the NDA government.

TU movement has virtually been reduced to some ritualistic exercises without any sustained action programme to organise the unorganised mainly in the informal sector. This year all the central trade unions, barring BJP-controlled Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and TMC-led labour unions in Bengal, observed a day’s token strike on July 9 to demand repeal of labour codes and implementation of some long-standing demands for minimum wages and social security. That’s all! Perhaps they will again give a call of nation-wide token strike next year. The strike was partially successful because the BJP-led NDA governments in different states actively opposed it. And the ruling TMC in Bengal too opposed the strike.

Production relations have undergone massive changes over the years, creating a new workforce and changed industrial relations. They are gig workers, platform workers, Ola, Uber drivers, employees of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), care-giving workers like ASHA, Anganwadi workers, domestic workers, construction workers etc. This is India’s burgeoning informal sector. They are all unorganised and they constitute more than 90 percent of total workforce. The Economic Survey of 2021-22 shows out of a total of 53.53 crore labourers, 43.99 crore are working in the unorganised sector, having no guarantee of minimum wages and social security.

Most of the jobs offered during the last few years in the private sector are not conventional manufacturing jobs, but gig jobs–the jobs for which workers are paid for each individual gig (piece of work) they do, instead of fixed salary (i.e. monthly wage/daily wage/hourly wage–like drivers for Ola and Uber, delivery boys for Amazon, Swiggy and Zomato). One gig worker works nearly 14 hours a day. Then they have no personal life and they earn on an average Rs 15,000 per month.

Today Gig workers have generated an economy of $20 billion (i.e. 1,70,000 crore in Indian currency) and it is growing. It’s now common in urban and semi-urban areas how a gig worker moves from one place to another on motor bike with a big shopper on his shoulder. According to Niti Ayog’s estimate some 7.7 million workers [2.6 percent of non-agricultural workers or 1.5 percent of workforce] were engaged in gig service in India by 2020-22. The number is likely to reach 23.5 million (6.7 percent of non-agricultural and 7 percent of total workforce0 by 2029-30.

A recently published ILO report depicts how digitalisation and introduction of new technology are changing the structure of industrial employment. Gig economy is expanding very fast. But gig workers are like bonded labourers. They are not covered by any labour law. Barring a state or two the persons in power do hardly bother about the necessity to regularise gig work system.

For one thing old style bonded labour system continues to prevail in some parts of Uttar Pradesh, and elsewhere, notwithstanding Bonded Labour Abolition Act. Then the condition of domestic workers are no better than that of bonded labourers.

According to Swapna Tripathy of West Bengal Domestic Workers’ Association [Paschim Banga Griha Paricharika Samiti] 2.2 million domestic workers have been registered so far in the e-Shram portal. These domestic workers have no fixed salary, they do not get maternity benefits, paid leaves–-above all they have no dignity in this job. As they don’t have any written contract with employers they are no in position to raise the issue legally. What is more agonising is these poor workers are denied access to toilets at the houses where they work. But domestic work in India constitutes one of the largest feminised segments of the informal economy.

In Bengaluru and Ahmedabad domestic workers are somewhat organised under trade unions but in the rest of the country they are as vulnerable as before. In these mega cities, as domestic workers are hired through agencies, their wage rates are better but no job security. They are frequently fired on flimsy charges.

Recently West Bengal government has announced minimum wages in 80 unorganised sectors. Surprisingly domestic workers have been kept outside the ambit of minimum wages notification. Established trade unions don’t show any interest in organising poor workers. Then all central trade unions are controlled by major political parties. Unless these parties decide to organise the unorganised in their millions nothing will move. Also, trade union bureaucracy, rather labour aristocracy, is also a factor, to ignore the huge army of hapless workers.

In Bengal bidi workers form a substantial number of rural workforces, concentrated mainly in south Bengal districts. They are supposed to get Rs 257 for rolling 1000 sticks as per Minimum Wages Notification, but they are paid anything between Rs 120 and Rs 130. It’s a kind of wage theft by employers. According to Naba Dutta, this wage theft in bidi industry by employers, amounts to a staggering sum of Rs 10,000 crore annually, if not more. The deprivation of workers in most labour intensive tea and jute sectors defies description. Tripartite mechanism in wage dispute resolution in age-old plantation and jute industries is no longer in practice. Then owners are deliberately making these labour-intensive industries sick to get rid of statutory liabilities.

In the absence of manufacturing industry low-paid services sector is emerging as the only source of livelihood for millions of young people who are entering the job market every year.

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Frontier Autumn Number
Vol 58, No. 14 - 17, Sep 28 - Oct 25, 2025