New Delhi, Apr 16 (PTI) Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Karol on Thursday flagged certain gaps that persisted despite economic development, highlighting that a significant portion of women in the country worked in informal or home-based settings where legal protections are limited.
Speaking at an event organised by Adhivakta Parishad Supreme Court unit to celebrate ‘Samrasta Divas’ on the 135th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, the apex court judge also said that child labour, though constitutionally prohibited and statutorily regulated, continued in economic segments that are informal and weakly regulated.
“I would also say this, if there is progress, it must be measured not only in economic terms, but in the security, opportunity and the well-being of those who labour. In the final analysis, the strength of the nation lies not only in the scale of its economy, but in the fairness of the system that sustains it,” Justice Karol said.
The event was organised on the theme ‘Dr B R Ambedkar: Architect of Indian Labour Laws’, where a book, ‘The Law Relating to Labour Codes’ by advocate C K Saji Narayanan, was also released.
Justice Karol said that he wanted to highlight certain issues, including the plight of women, who constituted 48 per cent of the country’s population.
He said, “And not everyone (every woman) is lucky to be born in affluent families, and not everyone is lucky to have had an education, much less higher education. Historically, women’s labour in India has been marked by both invisibility and inequality. A significant proportion of women work in informal or home-based settings where legal protections are limited.” Justice Karol cited the example of ayahs or housemaids and asked, “Have you ever thought about her? Can we bring her into the organised sector? “Who is regulating her? Who is even thinking about her?” “And this trend post-Covid has skyrocketed with over urbanisation. Even within formal employment, there are disparities. For example, dear hostesses, there is a huge disparity in wages, access and workplace safety, which unfortunately persists,” the top court judge said.
He said that another important issue was that despite the constitutional guarantees, child labour, though prohibited and statutorily regulated, continues to persist in the segments of the economy that remain informal and weakly regulated.
“It exists in small workshops, domestic spaces, agriculture and within supply chains that are not always visible to formal enforcement mechanisms. Thirty-five crore Indian citizens are children below 14 years of age,” Justice Karol said.
He said it was time to ensure their overall development and remove the barriers of lack of education and infrastructure because children were the future of this great nation.
“This brings me to yet another question: In 1986 and ’87 the (trade) union’s existence was visible. Now they should be partners in the implementation of the labour laws and perhaps the reforms which are sought to be brought in.” “But as I look at it, subject to correction, they are all but missing from this equation (of labour law reforms), one only wonders why, and for their best placed to be the voice of the worker, and more so, of an unorganised sector,” Justice Karol said.
The top court judge also beseeched young lawyers to take up the cause of workers, highlight their issues, ensure their dignity, and become part of the grievance redressal mechanism that solves their woes.
“And Samrasta, according to me, means peaceful coexistence, balance, togetherness amongst different individuals or groups.” “It is in this context that I must say that this is one such occasion that each one of us, coming from different backgrounds, is here on a single platform, discussing, debating, visualising the roadmap for this great nation, and also fulfilling the goals set up by our forefathers in the preamble of the Constitution,” Justice Karol said. PTI MNR MNR KSS KSS
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