Avani Chokshi

Book Review

Though working people constitute a vast majority of the country, the issues of the working class and labour legislation is often neglected in the public imagination. The slow and steady erosion of strong labour law protections through anti-worker Courts and the breakdown of several strong trade unions and movements have gone hand-in-hand with increasing precarity and uncertainty in the lives of workers. Mainstream media no longer sees labour issues as worthy of regular coverage.

The International Alliance of App-Based Transport Workers (IAATW) has recently released a report titled ‘South Asia Shadow Report on Platform Work Standards’ prepared on the basis of detailed survey and testimonials of app based workers of India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The report divides the issues being faced by app-based workers into 5 broad categories, identifies violations and makes recommendations.
    

Politically, 2024 saw the BJP government face a significant setback in the national elections. At the same time, the year saw a number of workers’ struggles from various sectors, protesting the anti-worker policies of not only the BJP as prime perpetrator, but also various other oppositional governments and private establishments who share the same crony corporate capitalist mores.

At a time of increasing precarity, traditional trade unionizing strategies must evolve to meet new challenges. While precarity is not new by any means, the systematization and entrenchment of precarious labour through all power structures and the steady decline of the permanent worker base necessitates broad-based and innovative unionizing strategy.

Supreme Court Directions to eradicate manual Scavenging
The Supreme Court has issued a slew of directions to ensure the complete eradication of manual scavenging, while noting that a large segment of population in bondage have been sytematically trapped in inhuman conditions. The Court also enhanced the compensation in case of manual scavenging deaths from Rs. 10 lakhs to Rs. 30 lakhs.

 The Rajasthan government, in July 2023, passed two laws – “The Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act 2023” and “The Rajasthan Minimum Guaranteed Income Act 2023”

The fascist project of the BJP which constitutes a concerted effort to undermine democratic institutions and to promote Hindutva nationalism on the one hand, also engages in overt class warfare of the ruling class against the working class as one of its defining features.