The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has urged the union government to draft schemes to protect existing jobs in sectors such as agriculture and handloom and also ensure avenues for employment by designing migrant worker centric plans that take into account specific sectors such as construction workers, street vendors and hospitality workers.
The suggestions were made at an interaction between the functionaries of the BMS an offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and eight union ministers who are part of the Group of Ministers (GOM) on employment and skill development chaired by union minister Thawar Chand Gehlot on August 6 and 7, people aware of the developments told Hindustan Times.
Citing the impact of coronavirus disease outbreak on economies across the globe and employment, the Sangh functionaries underlined the need of reverse job cuts in sectors such as plantation, beedi industry, handloom and fishing and recognise community based professions.
The labour wing of the RSS, the ideological fount of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has also called for identifying districts that offer mass employment with local resources and local potential so that the government can offer assistance to help them increase employment avenues.
Development of village clusters in each district followed by integrated development of villages was also suggested said a person aware of the details.
{{/usCountry}}Development of village clusters in each district followed by integrated development of villages was also suggested said a person aware of the details.
{{/usCountry}}“Job losses and economic slowdown have not happened only because of the pandemic. It is an ongoing problem. What we are suggesting is that the government should invest in sustainable policies that will deliver long –term solutions,” said Vrijesh Upadhyay, the general secretary of BMS.
Panning the need of providing jobs through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in the wake of the pandemic; the BMS has suggested tweaking of the criteria for providing jobs to registered workers. Family should not be the basis for providing work, instead Individual should be the basis, it has said, adding that a minimum of 100 working days under the scheme should be provided to individuals. The labour wing also wants suspension of the scheme for duration crop seeding and cutting so that work on farms is not affected because of labour shortage.
MGNREGA at present offers not less than 100 days of unskilled manual work as a guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in rural areas as per demand.
The BMS also wants a policy to restrict production of certain items which, tiny, micro and cottage industries can produce and big companies and multinational corporations are barred from producing. This suggestion, the BMS said, will be necessary to protect rural economy.
Biswajit Dhar, professor of economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University backed the suggestion to offer MGNREGA jobs to individuals, instead of households. When the demand for jobs particularly in the wake of migration on account of the pandemic is high, Dhar said the government should ensure those who are willing to work have jobs. “We cannot have involuntary unemployment. Whoever is willing to work should be offered a job,” Dhar said.
The second suggestion that he supported was the policy of reserving production for smaller units. “The government can identify a set of activities that will be reserved for the small, micro or cottage industries so that they can then give focused attention to them including long term loans,” he said.
The interaction was attended by BMS’s all india organising secretary B. Surendra and zonal organising secretary Pawan Kumar, while the union ministers present included Thawar Chand Gehlot; Arjun Munda; Mahendra Nath Pandey; Santosh Gangawar; Prahlad Singh Patel; G Kishan Reddy; V Muralidharan and Pratap Sarangi.