THE Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) unitedly protested on March 22, against the centre’s policy decisions and alleged that they are only worsening the situation of unemployment in the country.

While many issues ranging from the privatisation of  public sector units to the implementation of labour codes were discussed, what struck a chord with almost everyone was the demand to declare the Right to Work as a fundamental right.

The loss of jobs has increased under the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government due to its “disastrous policies”, said A R Sindhu of CITU, while addressing the crowd. She listed demonetisation, GST and the improper implementation of the Covid-induced lockdown as some of the examples.

“What’s more, this government has now announced a privatisation spree of the PSUs (public sector units) that are otherwise known for generating employment,” she said and added that the demand for a stable and respectable employment is hence the need of the hour.

Protesters were addressed by Aman Saini, DYFI Delhi state secretary, who lamented that the unemployment levels in Delhi are alarming. “The centre is certainly the culprit in the current unemployment situation in the country. However, even the Kejriwal government in Delhi has failed the youth. Even in the recent budget, instead of announcing a job scheme, the focus was shifted to hollow deshbhakti,” Saini said.

With a slow easing of lockdown measures, the unemployment rate in Delhi in the six months post-pandemic, rose to 28.5 in October-November 2020 compared to the 11.1 per cent in January-February, as per the Delhi government-commissioned survey, he said and added that there is a need to enact an urban employment scheme on the lines of the current rural employment scheme also known as MGNREGA.

The speakers highlighted the worsening of the situation of unemployment over the past decade and said that it has reached its boiling point. The loss of jobs has been the result of jobless growth under neoliberalism. The loss of jobs, both in quality and quantity, has gained momentum under the BJP-led NDA government due to the disastrous policies of demonetisation, GST and the improper implementation of the Covid lockdown.

The speakers said that instead of taking cue from previous mistakes, the government is increasingly giving away its role as a job provider through privatisation, and encouraging precarious job conditions through the recently introduced labour codes.  Moreover, the government is pushing for disinvestment of various sectors and handing them over to greedy corporate houses, which would further stress the situation of employment in the country, they said.

The amendments to the Apprentices Act and the launch of the National Apprentice Promotion Scheme are policy interventions that seek to replace stable employment with more precarious forms. This push towards 'flexible employment relations' is further demonstrated in the four labour codes and the National Education Policy introduced last year, they pointed.

The demonstration was a culmination of a month-long campaign across Delhi - Sonia Vihar, Khajuri, Mustafabad, Johripur, Jhilmil etc (East Delhi), Jhangirpuri, Bawana, Shahbad Dairy, Badli etc (North Delhi), Okhla, Govindpuri, Malviya Nagar, Khirki, CR Park, Meethapur (South Delhi), Sitapuri, Mayapuri (South West Delhi), Mangolpuri (North West Delhi).

The demonstration took the shape of a public meeting which was conducted by a presidium consisting of Virender Gaur (CITU), Sanjay Singh and Anusha Paul (DYFI), Sumit Kataria and Elizabeth Alexander (SFI). Protesters were addressed by CITU Delhi state secretary Anurag Saxena, SFI Delhi state secretary Pritish Menon, DSMM Delhi state secretary Nathu Prasad and JMS Delhi state president Maimoona Mollah. There were performances by Purshottam Bhatt and DASTAK.

A memorandum was submitted to Santosh Kumar Gangwar, union minister for labour with twelve demands. They demanded that Right to Work be declared as a fundamental right and to enact the Bhagat Singh Urban Employment Guarantee Act (BSUEGA) to ensure 200 days of work for all employable people at minimum wage rates. They also sought the government to provide unemployment relief of Rs 5,000 to the unemployed persons interested in working but whom the government fails to provide work under BSUEGA and MGNREGA.

They demanded that all youth and workers (domicile and migrant) be listed into super-skilled, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled categories through national and state-level registration to ensure effective implementation of BSUEGA. All economic packages handed over to the private sector under Make-in-India must be linked with generation of a fixed number of jobs, they demanded.

They demanded a minimum wage of Rs 21,000 per month, on-time announcements of  variable DA, regularisation of all employees in government, semi-government, autonomous authorities and municipalities.

The unions demanded the government not to allow fixed term employment provision to become a conduit for hire and fire in the private sector. Every second fixed term of an employee in any sector must be deemed as permanent/regular employment. Minimum wages and social security benefits must be given for all scheme workers (Anganwadi, ASHA, mid-day meal etc), they sought.

Filling up of the 60 lakh posts lying vacant with central and state governments since 2019, ensuring the implementation of reservations for SC/ST/OBC sections as well as opportunities for women and minorities were also demanded.

Limit the weekly time limit of work to 35 hours and implement the four-shift working day. This will help in giving employment to a larger number of people, the memorandum said.

Regularisation of nursing and other staff working on contracts in government and private hospitals and nursing homes, upgradation of the minimum wages of nurses in Delhi after indexing it to inflation, to Rs 20,000 as suggested by the High Court, were also among the demands made in the memorandum.

The unions also demanded clean and secure vending zones to accommodate vendors all over the city, provisions to stop the harassment of street vendors and extortion by police and municipal officers and protection to street vendors from big corporate retail chains in terms of friendly markets.

They also demanded that a law be made specifically focused on protecting employees from precarious work conditions of gig workers (those engaged in work on online platforms such as Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, and Uber).

Legal provisions regarding wage rate, work hours, weekly holidays, notice pay, healthcare and pension benefits for domestic workers, ensuring healthcare benefits, pension benefits, life and accident insurance for cycle rickshaw, e-rikshaw, auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers were also demanded.

Free and compulsory education from elementary to university level, paid internship for students with half the minimum wages as work allowance and a rollback on CBSE exam fees were among the demands made in the memorandum.

The campaign on employment will continue in the coming days as well, building up pressure on central and state governments to take concrete policy changes towards ensuring stable and respectable employment, the leaders vowed.