May Day has a very long history. In many countries people celebrate it, as the beginning of summer, with zeal and heartiness. Apart from being a festive day, the day has other importance too. In the memory of labour movement which began in US on 1st May 1866 this day is also celebrated as International Labour Day.
This day is observed as the celebration of the socio-economic achievement of the working class, the class which is responsible for the development of any country. Many demonstration and rallies led by labour unions take place on this day.
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The labour unions of organized sectors are in a position to dictate terms with the employers. But on the other hand the labourers of unorganized sector have not got enough strength to demand their minimal requirements.
In the era of globalization the problems of unorganized sectors have increased. The employees and workers are forced to work for more than 12 hours, which is totally against the labour norms and not in the parity of working hours of the labourers of organized sectors.
The emergence of BPOs and IT sector have provided opportunities to youths, but at the same time these industries have also added to the labour problems. According to the labour law of the country, the employees of these organizations are executives and not labourers because they earn more than the amount decided by Government to be a labourer; so they can not form their union and hence entitled to be exploited.
Government has failed to stop child labour, even after many promises and enactment of many laws. This problem is still rampant in our society and it seems our policy maker has no solution for the problem. In fact they are pre occupied to create seats for OBCs in educational institutions, what if 12.8 millions of child labourers can not see the gates of even primary school. After all these child labourers are not parts of the vote bank of any party.
Then there is problem of sex workers, they are continuously demanding their rights but no one is willing to listen to them. Every one in the country knows that they are exploited by their customers, police and pimps. But as their profession is not legal so government can not do anything to protect their rights. In many countries their profession has been legalized long back but in our country it can not happen owing to our deep traditional and cultural roots. Nevertheless in the same country the tradition of Devdashis and Nagarvadhu also existed.
Surprisingly, government can revise the criteria for castes to fall in OBC as many times as they wish but they can’t change the criteria to decide the labourers, which is really old and need to be revised. The government has yet failed to do something solid for the labourers and workers of unorganized sector. They should stop giving lollypops and do something reasonable to protect the rights of the sex workers, child labourers and the workers of unorganized sectors. This would be the biggest gift for the workers on International Labour Day.
