The writers of “The absurd clamour for labour market reforms” (October 14), Jayati Ghosh and CP Chandrashekar, miss the point when they consider the clamour for labour market reforms as one for wages reduction. Most employers do not clamour for reduction in wages but for reduction in unreasonable regulation in every facet of employing labour. Hundreds of regulations govern such employment.

Statutory minimum wages are classified for more than 400 industries with vague description and foggy boundaries. There are number of seemingly well intentioned regulations such as the Mathadi Act or the Khoka Board that are meant to protect labour. Nobody can tell you with certainty which of these regulations apply. There are ways of getting around these regulations and there are costs. A number of employers would pay higher than statutory minimum wages to get flexible and productive labour. Reforms are needed in these areas and not necessarily in wages.

Uday Palsule

Email

The need for labour reforms is not just to regulate wages but to regulate and manage labour disputes. The writers have ignored the disruptions/industrial relations issue with labour unions. The reason why companies prefer contract labour is that they can keep them away from union activities. Companies do not want to get into wrangles with labour unions, their politics, strikes and so on. A CEO of a company with labour unions would be spending 75 per cent of his time managing the unions instead of spending time developing the business.

Sridhar Narasimhan

Email

The article gives a balanced view of the injustice being meted out to the workforce in the name of reforms and globalisation. By collating certain facts in one place, the writers have helped policymakers revisit the way in which the Government and employers handle issues relating to compensation packages.

These facts are: total wages and salaries that amounted to only 4.5 per cent of the total input costs in the factory sector; the share of workers in the emoluments bill was less than 47 per cent; the share of workers’ wages to total emoluments is declining; regular employment is being avoided by contract labour and ‘outsourcing’.

The anxiety of ‘managers’ to protect their pay packets is also biting into workers’ emoluments. The phenomenal rise in the percentage of contract workers, which is a direct result of employers’ side-stepping legal provisions for workers’ protection, is adversely affecting the bargaining power of workers. All these are issues that will have to be addressed by the Government, at great social cost. .

MG Warrier

Mumbai

Over the top

This refers to “Behind the Prize, an agenda” by Rasheeda Bhagat (October 14). Of course, Malala Yusafzai has shown rare grit and determination. But awarding her the Nobel for Peace at this stage was a bit too much. Barack Obama was given the prize for showing good intentions but not for real acts. Many in India heard about Kailash Satyarthi only because he happened to win.

It is disquieting why our print and electronic media failed to highlight the work done by his NGO against child labour. He has not even won the Padma Shri. In this context, Mahatma Gandhi not having been given the Peace Prize will always remain a blot on the Nobel awards committee.

CG Kuriakose

Kothamangalam, Kerala

Good point

The editorial, “Not so Nobel record”(October 14) does well to emphasise a point felt by many in the country: Why no Nobel for India in science? The Government should provide enough incentives to youth to pursue science subjects and improve institutions of excellence and research facilities.

TR Anandan

Coimbatore

Distribute the excess food

This refers to the news item, “India reduces hunger, moves up 8 ranks in global index” (October 14). We have more than 50 million tonnes of food as buffer stock and still we end up in 55th in GHI. The buffer stock that we have is much higher than what it is stipulated by law. We have at least 20 million tonnes more of foodgrains in storage than required. Why can’t we get this to the market and reduce the prices?

We are a country with a very large poor population for whom inflation in food is the worst possible news we can give. A portion of this excess food is rotting or feeding rats in our storage facilities when the poor are going hungry to sleep. This situation must be changed and this government should not be happy with our climb of 8 positions in GHI.

We also lose about a third of our fruits and vegetables before it reaches our plates, according to experts. This situation can be changed with policies that encourage cold storage chains and good infrastructure linking our villages and in the agricultural markets. We need to revamp our agricultural policies and increase investment in irrigation projects and use direct benefit transfers to help the needy and use technology to empower our farmers. The farmers get about ₹33 for every ₹100 we pay as retail price. This needs to go up to ₹65.

CR Arun

Email

Very unfair

This is with reference to the Congress sacking Shashi Tharoor as its spokesman. He won two elections from Thiruvananthapuram Parlimentary Constituency (which is not considered a Congress stronghold) consecutively, due to his own personal charisma. With much difficulty, he won the confidence of ordinary Congress workers, fought the elections and came out victorious. In spite of stiff competition and opposition, he won because of support from Congress workers at the grassroots level and common people who are above politics.

Therefore, it is not surprising to see ‘leaders’ throwing their weight against an intelligent and charismatic leader, without giving him an opportunity to defend his case.

Ponnumangalam Prabhakaran

Thiruvananthapuram

A sign of the times

Maharashtra and Haryana go to the polls on Wednesday. Even though pre-poll surveys which other parties prefix with “paid” give an edge to the BJP in the multi-cornered contests, bookies are hedging their bets. The stakes are high for all the contesting parties in these two ‘key’ states. Their performance will show the level of support they currently enjoy and the variations in popular support since the general election. Apart from the mandate to govern the States this time the election results will assume added significance for their impact on national politics.

A BJP win in both the States will be trumpeted as a testimony to Modi’s continuing sway over the electorate and as an endorsement of his nearly five-month rule, whereas any erosion in the vote share will be cited as evidence of Modi’s dwindling popularity and a rejection of his one-man shows as gimmicks.

How “religious pride” and “regional pride” that at times ‘compete’ and at times ‘converge’ or do both simultaneously will work on the minds of the voters, as against-the bread-and-butter issues of politics, will be the single most crucial factor in the electoral preferences. The BJP’s conscious dilution of its upper caste bias or at least the creation of such an impression was tactically the right thing to do to emerge as the people’s choice for governance. Still perceptions and beliefs keep changing in the march of time and therein lies the hope.

G David Milton

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Erratum

The article “How to turn challenges into opportunities” published in The New Manager section on October 1 has been wrongly attributed to Jatin Bhandari. The article is from a paper by Goldratt Consulting.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send your letters by email to >bleditor@thehindu.co.in or by post to ‘Letters to the Editor’, The Hindu Business Line, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.

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