The Delhi unit of the Congress party will on Tuesday host a brainstorming session where party leaders and activists will deliberate on how to provide a legal framework to guarantee better rights for millions of domestic workers.
“We want to create a structure and provide them with common identity cards that can help us serve them better,” said Arbind Singh, president of the All India Unorganised Workers’ Congress, a recently-floated wing of the party.
Ensure basic facilities
In 2004-05, the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) had estimated that about 4.2 million Indians are engaged in domestic work. Experts say the number has substantially gone up since then and may have even doubled.
“We want to ensure that they get health insurance, minimum wages, weekly off, regulated working hours and social security measures,” said Mr. Singh.
Unorganised workers present an opportunity for the Congress to reconnect with a voting segment that seems to have shifted from the party.
In 2015, when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the Delhi Assembly polls, it was clear that Congress’s traditional urban vote bank — low income groups, mostly made up of migrant workers living in resettled colonies — had shifted to the AAP.
For the Congress party, workers engaged in the informal sector have the potential to be a game changer in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
On Tuesday, senior Delhi Congress leaders like Ajay Maken and Sharmishta Mukherjee will also take part in the session.
Mr Singh says his wing will set up policy clinics to break down and explain government policies that can be easily understood by workers.
"Take, for example, construction workers. Existing welfare schemes have already provisioned for ₹40,000 crores for them but most of it remain unutilized. There is no outrage over it. We want to change this,"said Mr Singh.
Rahul’s priority
Unorganised workers seem to be priority area for Congress president Rahul Gandhi as well: he addressed a convention of Unorganised Workers’ Congress even in the middle of the Gujarat campaign.
Based on Mr Gandhi's ideas, the Unorganized Workers' wing of the Congress is keen to assure "some guarantees" like providing a worker with identity, help in upgrading skills, help out in getting access to technology, finance and social security.
