Too many holes in the social security net
Hindustan Times

A new set of government figures corroborates what many of us had known all along, but probably feared to admit: the unbridled growth rate of the Indian economy has failed to transform the lives of the majority. The first study on informal and unorganised employment in India, compiled by the government-mandated National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), reveals that a staggering 394.9 million or 86 per cent of the country’s total workforce toil in this sector without any social security net. And, nearly 80 per cent of these workers live on less than Rs 20 per day or Rs 600 per month. These people, as the panel’s chairman Arjun Sengupta rightly says, are the “real poor and vulnerable” with few livelihood options” and this category consists of Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes and Muslims. The report adds that while the number of those who are below the official poverty line have come down in recent decades, the number of those in this broader segment of poor and vulnerable have steadily gone up.

The results of the study do not augur well for a nation that is keen to shed its ‘developing country’ tag. It also shows that our service sector-driven economic growth is not broad-based and has not created employment opportunities for the marginalised. Such widespread discontent, if not tackled now, will only strengthen anti-State movements and increase discontent. And, if it is not the bullet, it will be the ballot, which will bring down governments as the anti-incumbency wave in the recent assembly elections have shown. With the general elections only two years away, the UPA cannot afford to look the other way.

The government must look into the opposition building up against the existing draft of the unorganised sector workers’ Bill, which will be presented in Parliament this Monsoon Session. The NCEUS has recommended bifurcation — one for agricultural and another for non-agricultural — instead of one overarching Bill. Considering that the majority of the unorganised sector workforce is in the agriculture sector and this sector has its own distinct problems, it is important that their needs are seen separately from others. The 13-point action programme charted out by the NCEUS, which includes a national security scheme, minimum conditions of work, special programme for marginal and small farmers, credit for farmers and universalisation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee programme and the removal of the 100-day cap among others, must be adhered to if the government wants to keep its promises made in the National Common Minimum Programme. Otherwise, our 60-year-old experiment with democracy cannot be called an unqualified success.

Steel companies urged to suggest cost-effective ways of production
Financial Express

The steel ministry wants prices in India to come down below the import parity level. It has asked all producers and proposed investors in India to suggest as to what cushion the government can give for cost-effective production of steel.
The Union steel secretary RS Pandey told FE that the ministry has called a meeting of all the major steel producers and proposed investors like Mittal and Posco on August 17, to discuss ways of cost-effective production.

He said prices in India were market-driven and at par with the global prices. However, in relative terms—considering the purchasing capacity index—prices are higher in India.
The average price of steel in India is about Rs 26,325 or $650 a tonne at present compared with China’s $500-550, Russia’s $450-500 and South Korea’s $700 including a freight charge of $60 per tonne but excluding the 5% import duty and port handling charges of $5-8.

“Indian consumers should get steel at a lower price, for which producers must think of cost effective ways of making it. The government will do its bit to give cushion to producers “ Pandey said.
He said the meeting on August 17 has been convened to know the plans of steel producers relating to capacity addition and the impediments of implementing them.

The steel ministry, he said, would refer these problems to the inter-ministerial committee, comprising representatives of the steel, mining, environment, railways, shipping and transport ministries and the respective state governments, which would work out a solution and create a sort of road map to implement that.

“It is most important for the steel industry to find out a cost effective route to ensure growth,” Pandey said. He said more than giving direct fiscal incentives to producers, the government wants to upgrade infrastructure so as to reduce logistics costs. Besides, it wants to enforce more efficiency in production methods, which would come from enhanced research and development.
The Steel Development Research Mission is in the offing with a corpus of Rs 60-65 crore. All the major steel producers would contribute and the government would act as a facilitator.

The government would make use of the existing institutions for enhanced R&D, Pandey said. India is aiming to produce 200 million tonne by 2020, which means a capacity addition of 115m tonne in the next 13 years entailing an investment of Rs 600,000 crore. Steel consumption in the last fiscal grew

Surviving on Rs 20 a day
Workers deserve a better deal
Tribune

DESPITE 60 years of claims of progress since Independence, there are 457 million workers in the country and of them 394.9 million work in the unorganised sector, getting Rs 20 or less a day. Many of them may be above the poverty line — earning more than Rs 12 a day— but it is not hard to imagine the kind of life they lead with that meager amount. For the first time an authoritative survey of employment has been done by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector. The work force, largely engaged in agriculture, comprises SCs, STs, OBCs and Muslims.

Agriculture has been described as “a fertile ground for poverty” and 84 per cent of small and marginal farmers spend more than what they earn and are thus caught in a debt trap. It is true there has been reduction in poverty after the reforms were launched in 1991, but income inequalities have also grown. That is because the upper and middle classes have gained more from India’s industrial resurgence than the poor. The 8-9 per cent GDP growth does not make sense to the downtrodden. The inflation at 4.45 per cent provides little comfort to them if they have to buy wheat and dal at exorbitant rates. Reports that China and the US have greater income inequalities than India are no source of solace.

After the rural poor voted out the BJP in the last general election for harping on “India Shining”, the UPA government has taken initiatives like the rural job guarantee scheme and Bharat Nirman to raise rural incomes and alleviate poverty. The government proposes to introduce in the monsoon session a Bill to provide life and disability insurance cover, health benefits and old age pension to workers in the unorganised sector. That it has taken so long for the government to wake up to the need for providing social security to a vast majority of the workers reflects on governmental priorities.

77% Indians poor, vulnerable
The Times of India

The number of people below the poverty line may have come down, but 79% of unorganised workers, 88% of SC/STs, 80% of the OBC population and 84% of Muslims belong to the "poor and vulnerable group". That's the grim warning in the report of the Commission on the condition of unorganised sector workers.

Despite high economic growth in recent years, the report notes, "they have remained poor at a bare subsistence level without any social security, working in the most miserable, unhygienic and unlivable conditions". The category "poor and vulnerable" is one used by the Commission to describe all those who survive on Rs 20.30 per capita per day, which is twice the poverty line, or less. The report notes that 77% of India's population falls within this bracket.

That includes 6.4% who live on less than Rs 9 per day or three-fourths the poverty line level, another 15.4% who are between this layer and the poverty line, 19% who earn at best 1.25 times the poverty line and 36% who earn between 1.25 and two times the official cut-off for poverty. It, therefore, cautions that while large numbers may have technically ceased to be included in the official poor, they remain vulnerable.

Analysing various factors which have a bearing on the working and living conditions in the informal sector, the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, headed by economist Arjun Sengupta, found a close correlation with illiteracy.

The NCEUS, that formally announced its findings on Thursday, noted that "the illiterate have a very high probability of being poor or vulnerable, almost nine out of ten, and they are predominantly unorganised workers. Even those with education up to only primary level, 83% are are in the poor and vulnerable group."

Analysing the relationship between poverty and vulnerability and the type of employment among unorganised workers, the report observed that 90% of the poor were casual workers while only 10% of the higher income group were casual workers.

Among regular wage workers, 66.7% were in the poor and vulnerable groups, while 33% were from higher income group. Among the self-employed, 74.7% were from the poor and vulnerable and 25.3% came from the higher income group. The report highlighted that 79% of unorganised casual non-agricultural women workers in the villages are illiterate. Poverty among casual non-agri workers in cities is higher by almost 60% compared to villages. Also, 87% of women non-agricultural unorganised sectors work for less than the stipulated minimum wages and 85% of women agricultural labourers are illiterate.