Government schemes leave India's informal sector workers cold

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 25

A survey of the most vulnerable sections of the population has found that the promised benefits in the form of gas, cash and foodgrains have proved too inadequate for most of them.

“This has the potential to render countless citizens short on food, cash and security across aspects of their lives,” warns a snap survey of India’s informal sector workers, many of whom have remained invisible even now.

Despite this, there has been little to no urgency by state actors to extend protection and security to these workers. Rather, many states have dismantled existing labour protection laws in a bid to inflate capital inflow and growth.

“Those schemes which have been announced so far only cover a miniscule section of registered construction workers through direct cash transfers,”’ summarised the survey of construction workers, street vendors, sanitation workers and work-from-home females carried by Institute of Social Studies Trust, mainly in Delhi.

A fraction of construction workers has been covered. Though Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Rs 5,000 has been deposited twice in the account of construction workers, the survey found that it reached only 40,000 of the 5.4 lakh registered workers because many had not renewed their registrations. Delhi needs to emulate 20 states that have given money to all workers regardless of the renewal state. Delhi is estimated to have 10-12 lakh registered and unregistered construction workers out of roughly 5.5 crore nation-wide.

The tale of street vendors is similar though many vegetable and street vendors were able to make a comeback. But the economic impact has been extreme with informal production lines, which supported three others, having shut down and hawkers gone off the streets. Many of the vendors, including women, have fallen into a debt trap. In Delhi, those who were from nearby areas were able to go home but the rest, all living in rented accommodation, may have been part of the second exodus.

Waste workers, who thought they were in the exempt category, were the first to face police lathis when they ventured out at 4 am because few had the papers to prove their identity. Many of them did not venture out both because of fear of the police and contracting the epidemic. They never thought of returning as they had no source of income in the villages. Ultimately there was a major impact of the lockdown on their earnings.

Home-based women workers have been the biggest silent sufferers, having lost their entire incomes due to closure of factories and payments withheld by sub-contractors. Many respondents to the survey, with large household sizes and those without appropriate documents, said they faced food shortages. The difficulty is aggravated in case of single women and female-headed households. The survey mostly spoke to women among these sectors who also narrated the issues facing their menfolk.