Hemalata

After assuming power four years back, this BJP led Modi government has set upon itself the task of accomplishing what successive governments at the centre could not – comprehensive dismantling of any legal protection for the workers of our country. Such attempts are not new. The attempts to amend labour laws and remove the hard won legal rights and protections to the workers have a long history of several decades, gaining momentum under the neo-liberal regime. However such attempts could not succeed due to the stiff resistance from the working class. The present BJP government at the centre, which owes its office to a great extent to the unflinching support of the domestic and foreign corporates, is exhibiting a much more aggressive approach to achieve this objective. The working class has to combat this attack with much more determination and aggressiveness to ensure that the atrocious designs of the Modi government do not succeed.

The government is adopting a two pronged approach. On the one hand it is rushing ahead with its labour law amendment programme. One after another the labour laws are being amended. This is meant to rob the workers in the organised sector, who at least on paper have some legal protection, of their basic rights including the right to organise and collective bargaining. These are meant to legalise what at present constitute blatant violation of labour laws and empower the employers with unrestricted freedom to hire, fire and exploit workers; to gift the employers a union free workplace.

On the other, the government has unleashed a big media blitzkrieg by announcing several ‘yojanas’ which it claims would benefit the unorganised sector workers, who comprise more than 93% of the total workforce in the country. When such overwhelming majority of workers who are in the unorganised sector are benefiting, what is the big deal if a small section of workers in the organised sector have to face a few difficulties due to labour law ‘reforms’ to ‘attract investment’, to ‘Make in India’, that would ‘provide hundreds of million of jobs to our unemployed youth’ and enable India climb the ladder of ‘Ease of doing business Index’? So, apparently, goes the argument.

Yojanas- Claims and Facts !

What are the facts? CITU has dealt in detail with the true colours of these so called ‘labour law reforms’ and their impact on the workers in another pamphlet. Here we would examine, if the several ‘yojanas’ announced by the government ostensibly for the unorganised sector workers, do really benefit them.

Social security benefits for the unorganised workers and constitution of a national unorganised workers social security fund is an important point in the ten point charter of demands of the joint trade union movement. It is more than six years since the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act has been enacted in 2008. The Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Board has been constituted at the national level and made unanimous recommendation that all the unorganised workers in the country should be universally covered by certain basic welfare measures related to old age, health, maternity, disability etc. But till now, not a single new social security scheme has been formulated under this Act. It only provides coverage of ten already existing social welfare schemes to the unorganised workers. Most of these schemes are limited to only those below the poverty line, which is so ridiculously low that more than 90% of the unorganised workers are left out of the purview of these schemes.

The Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act states that every unorganised worker would be provided by the district administration with a smart card carrying a unique identity number. It is more than six years since the Act has come into force. But not a single smart card has been issued under this Act – neither during the erstwhile UPA regime, nor during the ‘Modi Sarkar’.  The government is still under the process of making the administrative preparations for issuing the cards. The trade unions have been demanding constitution of a National Social Security Fund for providing social security benefits under the Act. The National Social Security Board has unanimously recommended that such fund be constituted. The UPA government had sanctioned a mere Rs 1000 crore as an eye wash in its budget in 2010 -2011. But not a single paisa has been spent on any social welfare measure for unorganised workers from this fund till now.

RSBY— Reality-Check

The government claims that there are 3.63 crore ‘active’ smart card holders under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), which was made operational on 1^st April 2008. RSBY originally covered BPL (below poverty line) persons but later was extended to cover some categories of unorganised sector workers including building and other construction workers, licensed railway porters, street vendors, MNREGA workers who have worked for 15 days in the previous financial year, beedi workers, domestic workers, sanitation workers, mine workers, rickshaw pullers, rag pickers, and auto/ taxi drivers. Compared to the total number of over 43 crore unorganised workers, RSBY obviously covers only a small portion, less than 9% even if all the covered persons are taken to be unorganised workers.

Besides, RSBY does not cover all segments of unorganised workers. As already mentioned most of the unorganised workers would be out of the purview of RSBY because it covers only BPL people. Unorganised workers in the above mentioned few segments only are covered irrespective of their being BPL or APL. And even among these segments, only a small portion of the workers are covered by RSBY. Despite the unanimous recommendation of the National Social Security Board that  RSBY should be extended to workers employed in different schemes of the government of India, like the anganwadi employees, ASHAs, mid day meal workers, National Child Labour Project staff etc, no initiative has been taken to include them till now. 

If it took more than 10 years to accomplish this feat of covering less than 9% of unorganised workers, for a scheme like RSBY, on which the Labour Ministry claimed to have invested lot of energies and efforts, how long would it take to cover all the over 43 crore unorganised workers, even if the government intends to cover all of them?

Despite having several shortcomings, the RSBY provided some relief to the poor. The premium under RSBY was totally paid by the government of India and the state governments. The beneficiaries were not required to pay anything except a small amount of Rs 30 at the time of enrollment and renewal.  The present government has stopped registration under RSBY on the pretext of making some changes in it. The Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) reported that it was taking several initiatives to plug the weaknesses in RSBY including strengthening of MoLE with adequate capacity at various levels, setting up technical help desk at MoLE to address field level technical issues etc. Implementation of RSBY was shifted to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare from 1^st April 2015.

It was also reported that the government of India approved a proposal for convergence of three major social security schemes, i.e., RSBY, Aam Admi Bima Yojana (AABY) and Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) on the RSBY platform through a single smart card. The smart card would be linked to the Jan Dhan account number and the Aadhar card number. With the introduction of the new schemes having similar benefits as AABY, the fate of AABY itself has become uncertain.

New Schemes —Are they Really New?

On 9^th May 2015 the BJP government has announced with much fanfare three social security schemes from 115 different locations throughout the country. Two of them the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) are insurance schemes while the third Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is a pension scheme, mainly focussing on the unorganised sector workers. Despite the tags of Prime Minister and the name of a former Prime Minister, these schemes are totally contributory. The government does not provide financial support.

All the schemes are linked to having savings bank accounts. In the Jan Dhan Yojana, the total bank accounts in the country were 31.76 crore in June 2018. But, all Jan Dhan bank account holders are not eligible for these schemes as is generally being made out. He/she must have a minimum balance in the savings bank account to avail of these schemes which is at present Rs 500 in rural areas and Rs 1000 in urban areas. As per the report, 84.34 million (8 crore 43 lakh 40 thousand) or a little over 66%, of the Jan Dhan Yojana accounts have zero balance. This means that they are excluded from subscribing to any of these schemes. Can it be expected that an unorganised sector worker, who does not have any guarantee of getting work regularly, who earns a paltry Rs 2000 or Rs 3000 a month, even if work is available, will be able maintain a bank balance of Rs 1000?

PMJJBY and PMSBY both are modifications of the already existing Aam Admi Bima Yojana (AABY) which was introduced in 2007. AABY extends life and disability covers to persons between the age of 18 and 59 years living below and marginally above the poverty line, in 47 identified vocational/ occupational groups. The total annual premium under the scheme is Rs 200 of which Rs 100 is contributed by the government of India and the rest Rs 100 is contributed either by the state government (in case of rural landless households) or the concerned state government/ nodal agency/ individual.

The annual premium for the PMJJBY, which covers persons in the 18 to 50 age group, is Rs 330. The entire amount has to be borne by the concerned person. Along with this the life insurance cover has also been increased. While AABY provided insurance cover of Rs 30000 for natural death and Rs 75000 for accidental death, PMJJBY provides life insurance cover of Rs 2 lakhs for death due to any reason. But for PMJJBY, the insurance cover terminates at 55 years and entry is not possible beyond 50 years. Besides, AABY provides insurance cover of Rs 37500 for partial permanent disability (total and irrecoverable loss of one eye or loss of use of one hand or foot) and Rs 75000 for total permanent disability (total and irrecoverable loss of both the eyes or loss of use of both hands or feet or loss of sight of one eye and loss of use of hand or foot) due to accidents. It also has an add-on benefit in the form of scholarship of Rs 100 per month per child for maximum two children studying in 9^th to 12^th standard. These benefits, i.e. insurance cover for permanent disabilities and scholarship are not available under the PMJJBY.

PMSBY covers death and permanent disabilities for persons in the age group of 18 – 70 for an annual premium of Rs 12. Rs 2 lakh is paid on accidental death/ total and irrecoverable loss of either both the eyes, or loss of use of both the hands, or loss of use of both the feet, or loss of sight of one eye and loss of use of one hand or foot. For partial permanent disability, i.e. irrecoverable loss of one eye or loss of use of one hand or one foot, an amount of Re 1 lakh is paid. The accident cover terminates on a person reaching 70 years. Both PMJJBY and PMSBY also terminate on closure of the savings bank account/ insufficient balance to keep the insurance in force.

As per information, around 5 crore people have enrolled for PMSBY and 3 crore for the PMJJBY. Compared to the total number of unorganised sector workers, more than 80% will still be uncovered.

According to available govt. data, under PMJJBY a grand total of about 51,000 claims have been settled till now. That’s about 0.2% of the total coverage and negligible in terms of 43 crore unorganised workers. Under PMSBY, about 10 crore people were enrolled but the claims settled till now are less than 10,000. It is clear that the schemes are a failure mainly because people are not willing to pay more premium because it is too much of a burden, while insurance companies want more premium so that they can make more profits.

Insurance companies are said to be not comfortable with the low pricing of the schemes. There is no guarantee that the same pricing will continue next year as the insurance companies might increase the premium depending upon their experiences related to the claims this year.

The APY too is a modified version of the already existing Swavalamban which was started in 2010. The difference is that while Swavalamban does not guarantee the amount of monthly pension, the APY guarantees a monthly pension of Rs 1000, Rs 2000, Rs 3000, Rs 4000 and Rs 5000 on attaining the age of 60. The amount of pension depends on the contribution of the person. The accumulated amount cannot be withdrawn. The scheme is available for any person between 18 and 40 years who is not a member of any statutory social security schemes and not an income tax payer.

For APY, the government will contribute 50% of the total contribution of the person or Rs 1000 per annum, whichever is lower, for a period of 5 years from the financial year 2015 – 16. But this will be only for those who join the scheme between 1^st June 2015 and 31^st December 2015.

A worker who starts working at the age of 18 has to start contributing Rs 210 every month regularly to his pension funds to get a monthly pension of Rs 5000 when he is 60. A worker who is now 40 has to contribute Rs 1454 every month for 20 years to get the same monthly pension at 60. As per one calculation, assuming an inflation rate of 7%, this amount will be equivalent to Rs 1292 for a worker who is now 40, i.e., less than the workers’ monthly contribution!

The effective interest on the contribution of the workers is also lower. It is calculated that a worker who deposits the same amount in a recurring deposit account will earn higher interest than the effective interest earned on contribution to the APY.

According to the information, the response to APY has been lukewarm. Till 2018, about 94 lakh workers have subscribed to the APY. These include the 30 lakh Swavalamban subscribers enrolled till 2014. This again is only a small fraction of the total number of unorganised workers in the country.

What essentially the new schemes are meant for is to entice people into opening bank accounts and deposit their money and project even zero-balance account-holding in banks as financial inclusion of the people. Whom does it really benefit?

Ayushman Bharat

The BJP government led by Modi made a high decibel announcement in its latest Union Budget about the ‘National Health Protection Scheme’. It claimed that this scheme would provide insurance coverage worth Rs 5 lakh to over 10 crore families; that 50 crore people would benefit from this scheme. The government also claims this to be the world’s largest public funded health insurance scheme. Dubbed ‘Modicare’, and officially called ‘Ayushman Bharat – National Health Protection Mission (NHPM)’, this programme is expected to be fully functional from October 2018.

What is the financial allotment that the government made for this grandiose scheme? Initially in the budget, only Rs. 2000 crores were allocated for this year. This was later raised to Rs 10000 crore for 2018-19. But, even after this enhancement, it is less than half of the minimum premium required for the scheme, which is insurance based.

But more importantly, the scheme is applicable only for in-patients, that is, it will benefit only those who are admitted in a hospital. Many routine and common illnesses do not require hospitalisation though they need to be treated with medicines. This scheme, like the earlier Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) during the Congress led UPA government, does not cover the outpatients. More than two thirds of health expenditure of families in our country is on non hospitalised conditions, mostly on medicines. So, the scheme will not benefit you unless you are seriously ill.

Thus the scheme, like the RSBY, will benefit the big private hospitals and the insurance companies more, than the people. People covered by insurance will be forced to go to the selected hospitals, mostly private, where they are more likely than not, be subjected to unnecessary treatments and surgical procedures and over charged. This is what generally happens in the case of health insurance. The government, as in the case of Fasal Bima Yojana, will be transferring money from the public exchequer, people’s money to the coffers of the insurance companies. Like the RSBY, the health scheme too will increase, rather than decrease, the out of pocket expenditure on health by the common people.

Snatching Away the Existing Benefits

While shedding crocodile tears for the unorganised sector workers and posing as their benefactor, the BJP government is treacherously snatching away several benefits that were available to them till now. It has resorted to drastic cuts in the allotments to several of its social welfare schemes which mainly benefit the unorganised sector workers, particularly the children and women in their families. The financial burden has been shifted to the state governments on the pretext of increased financial devolution under the recommendations of the 14^th Finance Commission.

The allocations for the Ministry of Women and Child Development, for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and for education have been drastically cut.

The allocation for Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme, which has been in existence for the last around 40 years as a centrally sponsored scheme, continues to suffer from funds shortage. While the budget allocation to ICDS in 2014 – 15 was Rs 18391 crores, it was drastically reduced to Rs 8754 crores in the union budget for 2015 – 16. Subsequently, after protests it was increased but the core anganwadi services are getting funds that are just about the same as 5 years ago, in 2014-15. The ICDS is being transferred to the state governments with the government of India providing only capital expenditure (such as for construction of anganwadi centres etc). The state governments would have to bear the revenue expenditure like payment of the remuneration of anganwadi employees, supplementary nutrition etc which comprise a large part of expenditure under ICDS.

Similarly the sharing pattern between the centre and states has been changed for the National Health Mission. The allocation for NHM has been reduced. The government of India will only bear the capital expenditure and the state governments have to bear the revenue expenditure, i.e. the salaries of the employees etc. Today there is a large shortfall in the number of health personnel including technicians, doctors and specialists at the community health centres, primary health centres etc. Many are employed on contract basis. Their salaries are not paid regularly.

Though the government of India will continue to bear the cost of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and the Mid Day Meal programme, the allocations to these programmes have also been cut down.   

The way the government claims to work for the unorganised sector workers while taking away even the few existing welfare benefits and starting a few new ones for which it does not contribute a single paisa is really audacious.

Scheme Workers Betrayed

The lakhs of workers who have been tirelessly working day in and day out in its schemes have also been treated with utter contempt by this government. The anganwadi workers and helpers working in the ICDS, the Accredited Social Health Activists under the NHM, the mid day meal workers in its Mid Day Meal programme, the teaching and non teaching staff in its National Child Labour Project special schools or the others working in its other schemes like the National Rural Livelihood Mission, or in the Agriculture Technology Management Agency (ATMA) under its Support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms etc, the ‘scheme workers’ have all been totally neglected by this government.

The 45^th Indian Labour Conference has almost unanimously recommended that all these ‘scheme workers’ who are given various names like ‘social workers’, ‘volunteers’, ‘activists’, ‘friends’, ‘guests’ etc should be treated as ‘workers’, that they should be paid minimum wages and provided with social security benefits. Despite this, the government did not take any initiative to implement these recommendations. It did not even increase their meagre remuneration. Instead, with the drastic reduction in the allocation to all these schemes, their future has become totally uncertain. Even though the government of India claims of increasing the financial devolution to the state governments many state governments have disputed this claim and argued that in fact their shares as percentage of GDP has come down, while they are being burdened with increased share of the central government schemes. In this situation, how many state governments would be continuing these schemes in the present form? What will be the future of the lakhs of anganwadi employees, ASHAs and mid day meal workers who have served the poor women and children and the country all their lives with a nominal ‘honorarium’? What answer does this BJP government have to these questions? Till now it is totally silent on these issues.

All these ‘scheme workers’ have been immensely contributing to the building of our future human resources – the children of our country. The tireless work of the anganwadi employees, the mid day meal workers, the ASHAs, the teaching and non teaching staff of the NCLP special schools have helped in bringing down the serious problem of malnutrition, infant mortality and maternal mortality rates, in school drop out rates, in enrolling and mainstreaming child labour into regular schools etc. It is the families of the unorganised sector workers, poor peasants and agricultural workers who have been benefiting from these schemes. Now by drastically cutting down the expenditure on these schemes the government has not only put the livelihoods of the workers in these schemes in jeopardy, it is also denying these little welfare benefits to the entire poor of the country, including the unorganised workers, both in the rural and urban areas.

Successive governments at the centre, whether led by the Congress or the BJP have been claiming lack of financial resources when it comes to spending on basic welfare measures of the people. They have no financial resources for allotting adequate funds for National Unorganised Workers’ Welfare Fund! No money for regularising the anganwadi workers and helpers, the ASHAs, the mid day meal workers etc; no money to pay them minimum wages; no money to provide social security benefits to these lakhs of poor women, after utilising their services for decades. These workers are treated as some ‘use and throw’ articles; not as human beings!

The governments which do not have money for the workers have no dearth of funds when it comes to heaping bonanzas on the big national and multinational corporations. Consider this: Year after year, every year, since almost a decade or so, over 5 lakhs crores is given away as ‘revenue foregone’ (i.e. tax exemptions) on the average to these corporates. In addition to these exemptions, lakhs crores of rupees of direct tax claims are deliberately left uncollected year after year. This means that ever year, benefits amounting to around Rs 8- 10 lakh crore are given away to these corporations!  For whom is the government working? Whose interests is it protecting? The workers, who create the wealth of this country, who take care of its children, the future human resources of the country, or the corporates, who have been looting the nation and its natural resources, defaulting on huge amounts of loans from our public sector banks and also defaulting on tax-payment to national exchequer besides sucking the bones out of the workers in their never satisfied greed for profits?

Let Us Unite and Fight

We the unorganised workers, who do not have any job security, income security or social security, are fighting for these rights. We are fighting for a statutory minimum wage of not less than Rs 15000 per month; we are fighting for old age pension, for a safe and harassment free workplace, for health and maternity benefits, for child care facilities and for decent working and living conditions. Many of us like the anganwadi employees, ASHAs, mid day meal workers and other scheme workers are fighting for the right to be recognised as ‘workers’.

We can fight for these rights if we are united and organised into trade unions. The government knows this very well. That is why it does not want us to come together, get united, form unions and fight for our rights. It is totally changing the existing labour laws that give some protection, not only to the organised sector workers, but also to some segments of us, in the unorganised sector, making it almost impossible to get organised. It is spreading falsehoods to say that by changing the labour laws, lots of jobs would be created and the conditions of the workers in the unorganised sector would improve. This is nothing but a ploy to divide the organised and unorganised sector workers. We know that if the existing rights of the workers are taken away, it will not be easy for us to fight for new rights. If we really want to fight to achieve our rights, we have to join those who are fighting to retain their hard-won rights. We should not fall victims of the government’s divide and rule policy; we cannot be unconcerned about the government’s attempts to amend labour laws. Loss of existing rights for a section of workers means that it becomes that much more difficult to achieve new rights for all sections of workers.

The government cannot be allowed to get away with such brazen and shameless misinformation campaign to cheat the people and the country. The myths of extending social security benefits for the unorganised sector workers should be exploded. The anti worker and pro corporate policies of the governments must be exposed, fought against and defeated.

It is against policies that transfer people’s money for the benefit the big corporates while denying the poor basic social welfare benefits.

Let us Unite! Fight!

• For increase in social welfare expenditure
• No to governments that work for the 0.1%
• For policies that benefit the 99.9%

2018

Published by Centre of Indian Trade Unions