TOI:They are the most crucial but most underpaid and neglected link in the labour chain: March 08,11

WAITING TO CATCH THE NATIONS EYE
The Hidden Half….Himanshi Dhawan
They are the most crucial but most underpaid and neglected link in the labour chain.Domestic help,construction workers,state volunteers women in the unorganized sector may well be invisible

They are the invisible driving force behind the India Shining story.Behind tall buildings,highways,swank city roads and government programmes,they sweat their way on.Yet,the 43.3 crore workers in unorganized sector of which women make up an overwhelming 95.9% are the nowhere people,marginalized even in State policy.

The government,as the largest employer,has on its rolls the services of 41.39 lakh women who are supposed to receive an average of Rs 100 per day.These include anganwadi workers,mid-day meal workers and accredited social health activists (ASHAs) who prepare mid-day meals,assist with inoculations and vaccinations,child birth,awareness and capacity building of women and adolescent girls and early child education.In short,theyre the hands and feet of the social sector.

Yet,these women work in deplorable conditions and arent entitled to minimum wages,let alone social security or paid leave.And their numbers are growing.The National Commission for Enterprises in Unorganized Sector Report (( 2007) found that increase in employment between 1999 and 2005 has been mostly in this informal sector.

Economist Jayati Ghosh calls it misplaced miserliness.In her book,Never Done,Poorly Paid,Ghosh says that contractual appointments,especially of women workers,have increased in both Central and state governments.She adds that in defence of the underpaid services of women,the government says it allows it to expand services that are otherwise limited in scope,scale and quality.The result,rues Ghosh,is that it tends to undermine the programme itself because of the adverse impact of such misplaced miserliness even when there are critical services related to health,nutrition and basic sanitation.

Two of the much-touted welfare schemes,Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) rely on the underpaid work of lakhs of women who get an honorarium well below the minimum wage.The ICDS and NRHM employ women as frontline service providers,expected to act as a primary link between community and government.In the governments bid to keep expenditure low on social schemes,it has resorted to the traditionalist view that care work is service rendered by women and even gone to the extent of terming these workers volunteers so as to avoid paying salary or giving any social security benefits such as pension or health coverage.In government terms,ASHAs are given compensation.Some exceptions like Tamil Nadu,Kerala and Puducherry offer workers medical allowance,house rent or pensions but theyre a minorioty.

Besides this,women engaged in occupations of domestic work,construction,ragpicking,fishing or cash-crop production,continue to work without social safety systems.Nor is there any legislation to safeguard their labour rights.Beneficiaries of labour laws and most development programmes are predominantly men working in the organized sector,who constitute less than 8% of the total workforce.

Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee a group supporting unorganized workers says that policymakers will only sit up to take notice when unorganized workers join hands to form a vote-bank.Until the government guarantees the fundamental right to work,no effort made will address the vulnerabilities,hardships or marginalisation that unorganized workers face, said DMSC president Bharati Dey.Till then,the people who make India shine will have little reason to smile.

* The 43.3 crore workers in unorganised sector of which women make up an overwhelming 95.9% are the nowhere people,marginalized even in State policy.The government as the largest employer has on its rolls the services of 41.39 lakh women,who have no security of any kind