Wanted any excuse to shirk work

APROPOS of H. L. Kumar’s "Every time is holiday time" (February 7). India must be among very few countries of the world where any occasion, whether of national rejoicing or of mourning, is turned into a pretext for a paid holiday. Accordingly, the government’s list of national and other holidays is substantially long.

By the way, is it not odd, if not unethical too, for government offices to close for a minimum of 124 odd days (104 days on account of Sundays and Saturdays and about 20 other compulsory holidays), when common people work practically on all the 365 days of the year. Very few of them have even one weekly off day. Take, for instance, our farmers and agricultural labourers who work from dawn to dusk.

In a poor country with the annual economic growth rate of hardly 5 per cent there ought to be fewer holidays for the central and state governments committed to the removal of poverty and unemployment. The number of government holidays during the past decade has substantially gone up, thanks to the populist policies of the power that be.

The grand total of 124 public holidays mentioned above does not include unforeseen occasions of closure of business such as VIP deaths, national calamities or unscheduled rejoicings. Even without the unforeseen tally, the number of working days in the week comes to less than five, which is not bad for a country committed to the welfare state concept in theory rather than in practice!

One would not grudge the government employee his well-earned rest if it is followed by a weekly stretch of unrelieved labour. Greater leisure has by no means resulted in a larger output in most government offices. Walk into any government office in the so-called working hours. You will find half the employees missing from their seats and engaged in idle talk with their colleagues.

Nobody in his senses can dispute the need for improving the service and working conditions of most workers in our country. Trade unions should protect the legitimate interests of workers, not workers who do not work.

KM VASHISHT
Mansa

II

Government offices are generally closed in certain cities for half a day to enable the employees to participate in processions on the eve of some religious festivals. This is, of course, in addition to the full-fledged holiday on the festival day itself.

Some states and Union Territories keep on springing surprises by converting working days into holidays. Last year, the Himachal Pradesh Government declared a holiday for women employees in its offices on account of Karva Chauth. Sometime ago, Dasehra fell on a Sunday and the Haryana Government declared a holiday on Monday also. The Chandigarh administration announced a restricted holiday on January 19 this year on account of Id.

Surprisingly, it also declared a full-fledged holiday the following day. Even if it is presumed that all the employees celebrate Id, what were they doing at home when the festival had been celebrated a day earlier? (on January 19).

Why do we have so many holidays? The reason is simple. The policies of the government are made by bureaucrats.When they declare a holiday, they automatically become its beneficiaries too, getting an opportunity to stay away from work.

The Fifth Pay Commission did the right thing when it recommended a drastic cut in the number of public holidays. Not surprisingly, the country’s policymakers did not show any interest in accepting that recommendation.

SURENDRA MIGLANI
Kaithal

III

According to a decade-long study by the National Council for Applied Economics Research, "India has the shortest working year in the world (Comprising 1357 hours) as compared to 1800 hours in Europe and America."

Social activist Swami Agnivesh feels that government employees here enjoy holidays for nearly 200 days out of 365 days —104 on weekends, 18 gazetted holidays, 2 restricted holidays, 30 days earned leave, 12 days of causal leave and 30 days of sick leave on half-pay. There is no limit on half-pay leave. An employee earns it at the rate of 20 days per annum without limit.

Half-pay leave can be enjoyed as commuted leave (on full pay) simply on production of a medical certificate by the authorised medical attendant. In cities like Chandigarh even private doctors are authorised medical attendants.And then, there is no difficulty in procuring medical certificate from a government hospital doctor. Pay by the right hand and get it by the left.

As reported in The Times of India, sometime back countries like Brazil, the UK, Sweden and Holland have just eight holidays while France, the Philippines, Austria and Australia have just 10. And then who works on working days.When the leader of the erstwhile USSR, Leonid Brezhnev died, New Delhi declared a half-day holiday whereas Russian workers worked one hour extra in his memory. Good Friday is a working day in the predominantly Christian America but we have a holiday.

As far back as October 15, 1938 Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Harijan: "To delcare my birthday as a holiday should be classified as a cognisable offence." But no one heeded Bapu’s voice of sanity. The five-day week actually means a four-day week. People slip away on Fridays after lunch and report at lunch on Mondays.

What a tamasha! Can we reverse this process? Yes, provided we decide to be more honest with the country and the people.

S. S. JAIN
Chandigarh

IV

The election manifesto of no political party promises to increase productivity and efficacy and curtailment of holidays in offices. No trade union appeals to its members to work during office time. Everyone is enjoying holidays by forgetting the loss to the nation. The right way to mourn the death of an important personality is not to declare holiday rather to work by following his principles.

We should cooperate with the government by doing our duty and increasing productivity and efficacy in office work to see a progressive India varna, yeh chhution ka bhoot hamre pyare Bharat ko le doobega.

SHAMMI SHARMA
Sunam

V

Punjab has the highest number of holidays as in addition to birthdays and martyrdom days of ten great Gurus of Punjab are celebrated preceded by a half-day holiday for Nagar Kirtan. In reality, hardly 10 per cent employees participate in such celebrations.

People are forced to visit offices five to ten times for getting any work done. They look for the objections in the documents.When the same documents are handed over to touts, the job is done as money is paid for the purpose. Even on approaching senior officials, no action is taken. There is no time- frame for execution of jobs.

Depositing electricity or water bills, instalment of house, children school fee, bank transactions, local purchases etc are done by employees during office time without availing of leave.

When the Fifth Pay Commission recommended reduction in casual leave to three, there was a hue and cry among government servants. Eventually, they forced the government not to reduce the number of holidays as was recommended by the commission. There is one area in which employees are very efficient, that is how to get their demands accepted by the government. Every month employees of one department or the other are on strike to pressure the government to accept their demands.

These employees are enjoying non-accountability and a spell of holidays because of the monopolistic nature of their work. Because of this attitude, a large number of public sector undertakings, have been suffering huge losses. After liberalisation, reforms initiated by the government in 1991, the financial condition of a large number of PSUs is a matter of serious concern.

At the same time, there is a great discrimination with the persons employed in the private or public sector. Here, employees are required to work for 48 hours a week as per provisions of the Factories Act.

In the private sector, the wages paid are substantially lower than in government departments because of Minimum Wages under payment of Wages Act. In factories, workers are punctual about attendance, work and output. They are even not allowed to go outside during office timings except for official jobs. At the same time, their wages are linked with the production/output. The promotion to higher position is not as a matter of right but on account of individual’s capability and needs of the organisation.

It is the need of the hour that in government departments, responsibility and the accountability be fixed for timely execution of various jobs. At the same time, the salary paid to them should be linked with their output. Work study methods should be applied to assess output of individuals and incentive should be provided. Promotion should be based on individual’s capability and not as a matter of right, seniority or other reasons. At the same time, their service rules be replaced by Industrial Laws.

AP BHARDWAJ
Chandigarh

VI

Barring a few sincere, dedicated and committed workers, the rest of them are just marking time. The work culture in government establishments is simply missing.

It is a common sight to see, almost daily, one or the other section of employees agitating for more and more benefits. In fact their demands are endless. One is yet to see them pledging to work for more hours without claiming overtime allowance.

It is felt that the government should seriously consider curtailing drastically the number of holidays and reverting to six-day week. The government, however, does not seem to have found time, so far, to go into this important issue.

S.S. SOOCH
Jalandhar

Cultivate calmness

This refers to IMSoni’s article, "Cultivate your calmness quotient (February 7). The ability remain cool in a crisis can be acquired. Don’t forget to remember that it takes two to have a quarrel. The one who loses his head is actually a patient who is really angry with himself and is merely taking it out on you. Think this way and you won’t feel angry. Losing one’s head affects us in more ways than one.

Dr Hans Selye has discovered that our body is affected by hormones which are body’s tiny adaptors helping ease out stress. If you lose your head frequently, you produce excess of these hormones which have relationship to diseases like arthritis.

The ways to stay calm provided by the writer should surely be practised which will eventually lead us to a stage where mind and spirit work as a team. If that state of being isn’t happiness itself, it is undoubtedly its next-door neighbour.

VIVEK SINH MAR GIRAN
Kurukshetra

II

One can gain equanimity and peace by adopting a truly religious outlook, leading a righteous life and doing everything as an offering to God.

Thus, every ordinary act becomes sanctified and the Almighty’s grace descends to calm the ruffled nerves in difficult situations. Meditation helps one to attune oneself to the active inner guidance the divine voice, which has the answer to every dilemma.

The structure of life is raised on four pillars: dharma (righteousness); Artha (wealth); Kama (desire) and moksha (liberation). These sustain and support one another. Tensions arise when one tries to sustain oneself on just two pillars of aratha and kama and demolishes the other two. Dharma must sublimate artha, that is to say, through moral means alone should the means of livelihood be obtained and that wealth is meant to alleviate the sufferings of the poor.

One has to make a spiritual start somewhere, sometimes. The sooner, the better. There is no better way than this to overcome stress in life.

SK SHARMA
Hoshiarpur