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The First May Day

In the late nineteenth century, the working classes were in constant struggle to gain the 8-hour workday. Working conditions were severe and it was quite common to work 10-to-16-hours a day in unsafe conditions and in heavily underpaid jobs. Death and injury were commonplace at many workplaces. As early as the 1860’s, working people started agitating to shorten the workday without a cut in pay. This movement started in Australia, and gradually spread elsewhere.

The World Inequality Report

The World Inequality Report (WIR) 2022, coordinated by Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty and others, and published by the World Inequality Lab, holds up an important mirror to the world. It shows the deeply unequal times that we are living through.

In the early months of 2020, when the Modi government announced a national lockdown with no preparation whatsoever, thousands of migrant workers were forced to walk hundreds of kilometres to their homes in desperation. When the government was subsequently asked details of these workers, it claimed to have no information. The outrage generated by this callous response led the Modi government to announce the formation of the E-shram portal, officially a database of unorganised workers in India.

Frontline workers employed in Victoria hospital as housekeeping staff, ward attenders, lift operators, Data entry operators and security, have not been paid their wages for October 2021. Victoria Hospital was a dedicated COVID-19 facility, and these workers worked throughout the first and second wave of COVID-19.  The wages for the month of September had also been delayed and was only paid on 31st October.

In this series, various changes sought to be brought in by the proposed labour codes are being discussed. It comes as no surprise that the Codes, brought in clearly show the corporate nature of the state. While issues such as the overbroad exemptions, the excessive delegation and the definitional changes have been discussed previously, this note considers the changing face of the grievance redressal machinery in the Industrial Relations (IR) Code.

Communal Violence against Muslims and the Subsequent Use of UAPA for Hiding the Truth from the World

The winter session of parliament is beginning on November 29. This session is likely to take up the key financial issue of privatisation of banks. During 2021-22 budget, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced the privatisation of two nationalised banks and one general insurance company. Accordingly, the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Bill, 2021, was passed in the monsoon session, though the particular insurance company to be privatised had not been identified.

Narendra Modi and the BJP came to power with a promise that they would double farmers' income by 2022. A committee was constituted in April 2016 to examine issues relating to the doubling of farmers' income. The Committee submitted its report to the government in September 2018 with the aim and strategy for doubling the income of farmers by 2022. The Committee further recommended that farm income has to grow at 10.4 per cent, at constant base-year prices, to achieve the goal.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the countrywide Lockdown in 2020 has been devastating for garment workers. Left without a means of income beginning from March 25, 2020, workers faced multiple blows from transnational apparel corporations to which they produced for, from the factory managements to which they worked for and from state governments that were constitutionally bound to protect the rights of workers.

The life and livelihoods of street vendors have been debilitated post-COVID 19 pandemic. Street vendors who have always been at the receiving end of the State’s wrath through constant spate of evictions from their market places, hafta collections, verbal and physical abuse at the hands of the police, local authorities, and private individuals, have now been deeply affected by the looming economic crisis in the country. Additionally, they are also impacted by the anti-farmer laws as also the growing communal violence and the atmosphere of intolerance in the country.