The G-20’s screen over ‘mazdoors’, their rights

General Studies Paper 2

Introduction

• On the final declaration of the G-20 Summit, India missed a great opportunity to protect worker rights and advance the welfare of workers during the G-20 summit, despite the G-20’s Labour 20 (L20), a coalition of G20 leaders concerned about workers, holding two meetings in India.

An exploitative labour system

• The Indian government should have taken the opportunity to address the serious issues facing workers in India, such as forced labour, modern-day slavery, and the kafala system in the Arab Gulf where some nine million Indians are working under exploitative working conditions.
• The Arab Gulf countries follow an exploitative labour system called the kafala system, which ties migrant workers to their employers.
• This system makes it difficult for migrant workers to leave their jobs or change employers, and it increases the risk of forced labour and modern-day slavery.
• Portable insurance schemes are important, but they are not enough.
• Workers also need job creation, decent working conditions, equal pay, gender equality, the elimination of forced labour and child labour, an end to modern-day slavery, and the protection of their rights and the welfare of their families.
• It would have been a relief for the Indian working class, especially in the Arab Gulf, had these issues been prioritised and debated at the G-20.

The scenario of migrant workers in India

• India is the world’s largest migrant-sending country, with an estimated 13 million workers abroad. Of these, an estimated nine million are working in exploitative conditions in the Arab Gulf.
• But the exploitation of Indian workers is not limited to the Arab Gulf.
• In India itself, workers in a number of industries, including textiles, brick kilns, shrimp farming, copper manufacturing, stone cutting, and plantations, face forced labour and modern-day slavery.
• Many would be surprised with the term forced labour and modern-day slavery. According to the International Labour Organization, forced or compulsory labour is “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily”.
• It must be noted that India has signed and ratified the ILO’s Forced Labour Convention known as C29.
• In other words, forced labour is different from substandard or exploitative working conditions.
• Various indicators can be used to ascertain when a situation amounts to forced labour, such as restrictions on workers’ freedom of movement, withholding of wages or identity documents, physical or sexual violence, threats and intimidation or fraudulent debt from which workers cannot escape.

The underlying issues

• Workers who are paid less or unpaid for overtime, under the threat of being fired if they ask for it, are victims of forced labour.
• Workers who are forced to work until they have paid off a loan they took from the company are also victims of forced labour.
• Companies that withhold workers’ identity documents, such as Aadhaar cards or ration cards, and deny them access to the documents when required until the work is done are also engaging in forced labour.
• Issuing threats of sexual, physical, or mental abuse in order to get the work done is also forced labour.
• In addition, we should not forget that the move by the Union government to consolidate the labour laws into four labour codes is drawing protests from trade unions, civil societies, and workers, who allege that it will have a negative impact on decent working conditions.

Conclusion

• Addressing forced labour and modern day slavery is important for India because the exploitation of workers would increase inequality, unstable social justice and threaten democracy.