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Improving Policy
Coherence in South Asia
To spread the gospel of decent work and bringing about coordination and coherence in the polices and programmes of governments and of organisations representing the employers as well workers and national and international multilateral institutions, ILO organises conferences on the "Nexus of Growth, Investment and Decent Work". This book contains country papers and perspective presented by World Bank economists, ILO specialists and consultants, and eminent economists and professors at one such meeting for the South Asian sub-region held in New Delhi in 2007. The picture presented by these papers brings out how distant is the dream of decent work from the harsh reality of the plight of most workmen in South Asian countries, namely Iran, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangla Desh and Sri Lanka, and how deep the abyss between the tantalising ILO construct and the current critical status of the availability of employment and its quality. Finding gainful employment for the burgeoning labour force appears increasingly unachievable in most of these countries, let alone ensuring decent work. Recently, Jayshree Sengupta termed India’s unemployment problem as "alarming", with 40 million workmen jobless! Their plight is worsened by spiraling prices and double-digit inflation. Gloating over 9 per cent growth in the economy is, therefore, misplaced as it’s due to the phenomenon of "jobless growth", which also bothers the experts in this book. Besides, as the World Bank lead economist Ahmad Ahasan and his colleagues point out, "Simply looking at employment rates can be misleading as employment numbers conceal significant underemployment and distress driven employment in low wage, low productivity jobs in the informal economy, which employs some 90 per cent of prime age workers in the Indian labour force." Bangladesh showed phenomenal growth in garment industry which employs 2 million people, mostly females. But the hidden disturbing aspect is that barely 5 per cent of them had received a formal appointment letter from their employers. They were treated as "casual" labour and could be dismissed without notice and were paid less than proper wages. In Iran, unemployment was at 12 per cent and inflation at 15 per cent; workers were actually receiving about 40 per cent of the officially declared minimum wage. Nepal’s economy has been liberalised, yet poverty intensity among the deprived and vulnerable socio-economic groups continues and income inequality has widened markedly in recent years. In Sri Lanka, the protracted Civil War has devastated millions of people and even data collection hasn’t been possible in the two affected provinces. Similarly, in Afghanistan, establishment of the rule of law is the main concern, and understandably there is little scope for decent work. Pakistan, too, is riddled with problems of governance, embroiled in the schizophrenic act of simultaneously abetting and battling with terror. Nadeem ul Haque’ country paper hardly addresses the ILO concerns about workmen, but has called for far-reaching reforms of its economy, which is mostly aid-driven. In sum, at the present juncture in South Asia, the ILO construct of decent work reminds the reader of a thirsty traveller dreaming of reaching an oasis in an endless desert!
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THE
workman is the principal engine of production, primary agent of growth
and very bedrock of progress and prosperity. Yet, at least in the South
Asian countries, he is wedded to poverty, wears a lean and hungry look
and lives in peripheral, makeshift shanties—the spectre of joblessness
haunting him forever. He is "blissfully" unaware that the
International Labour Office (ILO) has mandated that he is entitled to
what it calls "decent work", defined as "decent and
productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human
dignity".