By Kyrsoibor Pyrtuh
It is only when it comes to the Reservation Policy in appointments or promotion, and the demand for increase in remuneration and other monetary benefits, especially in government or quasi government establishments that workers or job seekers in Meghalaya would come together as a collective to pressure the State to redress their grievances. Beyond this, it is business as usual for workers in Meghalaya. Although, Meghalaya has had a long history of workers mobilization by National Labour Unions, like the Left backed All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the Congress backed Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), so far, nothing organic has emerged from the State in terms of labour movements and unionization, despite the fact that workers in Meghalaya are the most exploited segment in society.
Workers in the Neo-Liberal Era: In brief, the adoption of liberalization and neo-liberal policies in India in the early 1990s has indeed led to significant changes in the understanding of who a worker is, of economic production, and the overall labour landscape in the country. Traditionally, a worker in India was often viewed as a permanent employee with job security and benefits. Post-liberalization, there has been a significant rise in contractual, temporary and part-time employment. The in-formalization of labour has put workers and their livelihoods in a precarious situation. Prachi Salve’s analysis of job’s data in India (2019) is a telling account that after two decades of the liberalization of the economy about 90% of jobs created in India were informal. Many new jobs created have been in the informal sector, where workers lack legal protections, benefits and job security. In short, Liberalization has failed to achieve its objective to alleviate people from the clutches of poverty and to raise the standards of living by providing better wages and improving the working conditions of workers. The International Labour Organization and World Employment Federation have described predominance of informal employment as an indicator of lower quality of life, as workers in such jobs are vulnerable, without the social protections afforded to workers in formal jobs. This trend has continued and new research findings like the “India Employment Report 2024: Youth Employment, Education, and Skills,” published by the Institute for Human Development and the International Labour Organization (ILO), revealed that a staggering 82 per cent of the workforce is engaged in the informal sector, with nearly 90 per cent being informally employed.
According to economic experts, India is entering into the fourth phase of unionism or the mobilization of workers into union formation. This phase has before itself the task to respond to this rapid in-formalization of labour which has led to sharp rise of inequality, income disparity, poverty amongst the work force and dependency ratio in the state/country.
In the absence of accurate or authentic data it becomes difficult, if not hard to ascertain the conditions of workers both in organized and unorganised sectors in the State of Meghalaya. Way back in 2017, Prof S Umdor presented two broad pictures of informal workers in Meghalaya. Firstly, the agricultural informal workers who totalled 6.9 lakhs in numbers which was ten times the numbers of serving state government employees. Secondly, 78 % of the workforce in the State are employed in informal non-agricultural sectors and the services sector accounts for a large percentage of the informal workers in the non-agricultural sector.
Issues with the Gig Economy: Recently, the onset of the gig economy in the workspace seemed promising by the creation of numerous employment opportunities for a significant number of youths. Meghalaya has also witnessed a rise in bike taxis, app-based jobs, deliveries and various service sectors, employing many young individuals. However, this growth is not without its challenges. Many youths engaged in gig work face issues such as a lack of a just and fair system, protection and regulation of their livelihoods due to the absence of specific gig work legislation in the state. There are major concerns regarding job security, health and safety, insurance, compensation, benefits and protection, income inequality, exorbitant extraction of commission by aggregator companies and market saturation etc.
The situation with the gig economy in Shillong City, Meghalaya is not much different from the rest of India. In food delivery, Swiggy is the dominant player here. Though, taxi services provided by Ola/Uber have not penetrated the city yet; credit goes to the already existing local taxi service. However, due to the excessive traffic jams people are increasingly preferring bike taxi services and aggregator/app-based companies have gained monopoly since the introduction of app-based bike taxis. The numbers of youths engaging in the bike taxi business are increasing daily. But there is one thing peculiar to Shillong bike taxi services. Today most of the riders operate independently of the aggregator whereby they casually approach the customers in order to bypass the commission deduction by the aggregator companies. From Motphran to Khlieh (Hill top) Nongthymmai one will find hundreds of bike taxis stationed at every junction and the curse of traffic jams makes daily commuters prefer this mode of transport even though sometimes bike taxis charge exorbitant rates. No matter what method the bike taxis are operating in Shillong, they cannot escape the brunt of the gig economy. Unfortunately, there has been no demand for legislation to regulate and protect the gig workers in the State. Perhaps many are not aware of the perils which await them and they have been made to believe that this is the panacea that will sustain and alleviate the state from the pains of increasing unemployment. The independent method which the bike taxi riders employ put both the life of commuters and their livelihoods at greater risk. If an accident happens the blame falls entirely on them and should something bad happen to the customer it will be very difficult for them to settle matters without a law in place.
The Shillong bike taxi riders/drivers also face similar problems like other app-based gig workers in the country. For example, most of them are not aware of the ‘Terms and Conditions they agreed to while joining the platform. One reason is that such agreements are not provided in local languages. In a conversation with some of them, they expressed that when the company started its operations, it used to deduct only 4.5-5% commission, which gradually increased to 30% once the company became the dominant player in the market. Additionally, lack of transparency enabled by technology, and the inherent exploitative framework of the gig economy, which evades and violates labour laws on the one hand and exploits the workers on the other hand is the same phenomenon everywhere.
However, one major difference between the gig workers of Shillong and other cities is that while in other cities the workers either have formed unions or are in the process of forming one, in Shillong we do not find any such attempts, thereby leaving the aggregator companies a free hand to exploit the workers. The formation of the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) in 2019, and the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU) in 2020 had been successful in checking the exploitative practices of the aggregator companies up to a certain extent and in drawing the attention of several state governments to pass laws and guidelines on security benefits for gig workers.
Core Principle of Workers’ Rights Campaign in Meghalaya: In the past one decade, the Thma U Rangli (TUR), relentlessly campaigned for workers’ rights and attempted to unionise workers in Government, private and unorganised sectors. Such a campaign is also aimed at becoming an indigenous, inclusive and organic movement within the State, but with a national outlook. The campaign includes the publication of TUR’s core beliefs and charter of demands which were placed in the public domain. The charter of demands include the inalienable rights of the workers and it is important to revisit this so as to create an awareness for the workers to secure their rights. Here is an extract of TUR’s core belief as far as workers rights are concerned. All other public demands for workers’ rights stem from this principle.
That, the minimum wages in both rural and urban areas be revised annually and indexed to the state inflation rates. Government to commit towards making minimum wages to be in line with living wages which allow a family to live in dignity. Living Wage is a wage that can support a family to live with dignity. A living wage should be calculated on the cost of a basket of goods that would include sufficient calories for a family (using the local dietary habits) and a similar amount for non-food costs including housing, clothing, energy and material goods. Living wages should accommodate the interest of multiple forms of family structure, the reality of care work that women often provide for children, extended family and other dependents. All workers in Meghalaya whether indigenous or those coming from outside the state must enjoy all the provisions of human rights. Workers’ rights are part of ensuring respect for human rights enshrined in the universal declaration especially of migrant workers who contribute to the economic well-being of the state.