Special Correspondent
Low level of education denies workers access to good jobs
NEW DELHI: Low level of education and poor access to land denies workers access to ``good jobs” in the organised sector. Those with poorest access to education and land are confined mostly to casual/manual labour with socio-religious identity adding to their vulnerability, according to the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector.
The Commission in a report on “Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganised Sector,” says among the workers in the unorganised sector, the Scheduled Tribes have the lowest average years of schooling at 2.8 years, followed by Muslims Other Backward Classes (OBCs) at 3.8 years, Hindu Scheduled Castes at 4.1 years and Hindu OBCs. The upper caste Hindu workers at 8.4 years, fared the best, The ST and SC people are predominantly represented in wage labour, the Muslims are overwhelmingly concentrated in self-employment.
The report has also found that women workers, especially those with lower social and educational status, faced inherent disadvantages and systematic discrimination in the labour market. Women in the unorganised sector have poor earnings and poor working conditions. About 54 per cent of the regular workers among women are domestic workers.
The other segment of disadvantaged workers dealt with in the report are migrant, child and bonded labourers. About 8-10 per cent of the total workers are seasonal migrants, who are poor and take recourse to migration as a strategy for survival. The limited social networks of these migrants further increase their vulnerability in the labour market.
The incidence of child labour has been on the decline in the country. However, a large perspective of considering all out-of-the-school children brings out the continuing nature of child deprivation. On the issue of bonded labour, the report says that since the problem is defined by the definition of bonded labour adopted, there was no credible estimate of the magnitude of bonded labour yet available. Yet, the Commission views the problem as huge in view of the overwhelming empirical evidence arising from a number of studies and surveys.
Agricultural workers who are largely in the unorganised sector are an extremely impoverished and vulnerable group. Within this group, agricultural labourers are worse off than farmers as they are characterised by extreme poverty levels. Farmers are slightly better off than the labourers as they have some capital base in land. But marginal and small cultivators have very little resource and also have to supplement their incomes through wage labour. Their income levels are below their consumption level which leads to high indebtedness among them.
The problems of farmers are compounded by the slow down in the agriculture sector. Farmer needs credit to meet both consumption needs as well as for production purposes. Increased indebtedness is noted as a reason for a spurt in farmers’ suicides during recent times across a number of States in the report.
