Click to play videoNew Delhi: CPI-M-backed labour union CITU has called for a 24-hour nationwide strike on Wednesday demanding benefits for workers in the unorganised sector. But the workers themselves don't think a strike is their best option.
Twenty-one-year- old Shyam Sunder Singh sells corn in Kolkata's Ezra Street for a living.
If he is lucky, he earns around Rs 100 everyday. Shyam is part of unorganised sector, which constitutes over 90 per cent of India's workforce. But he is unhappy with the CITU bandh called to demand more benefits for workers like him. He says the strike would only serve to deprive him of his daily bread.
Shyam says, “See a strike means loss of earning and sitting idle. I don't support the strike at all.”
The CITU is unhappy with a proposed legislation for unorganised workers. It says a draft bill sent for the perusal of the National Advisory Board, does not meet many of the workers' requirements.
The CITU has come up with 15 key demands including Social Security for the workers. A provident fund scheme, health scheme and maternity benefit.
The CITU alleges that the Centre initially agreed to many of these demands but has now gone back on its promise.
CITU West Bengal Unit Gen Secretary Shymal Chakrabarti says, “By this new Bill they want to deprive the whole of unorganised sector people who are poorer. What we are saying, they are going out of their own commitments so we are fighting them.”
The Centre has so far not commented on these allegations.
What’s ironic is that it’s the very same CPM of which CITU is a part that is supporting the Congress-led government at the Centre.
But both have consistently failed to see eye-to-eye on key issues whether it be the nuclear deal or labour policies.
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