Among key initiatives of the Narendra Modi government has been the fast-tracking of labour law reforms to put an end to ‘inspector raj’ and improving the country’s rank in the World Bank’s ease of ‘doing business’ index.

However, when it comes to checking labour law violations, the number of inspections in the Central sphere, which includes banks, railways, defence, insurance, mines among others, has anyway been on the decline.

Contract workers

For instance, with the number of contract labourers engaged in the Central sphere estimated at about 21,12,715 persons, the number of inspections under the Contract Labour Regulation Act fell to 6,990 with 4,084 prosecutions launched in 2013-14, against 8,146 inspections and 4,671 prosecutions launched in 2012-13, according to Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha last week.

Minimum wages

Under the Minimum Wages Act, the number of inspections in 2013-14 dropped to 13,099 with only 5,167 prosecutions launched against 15,460 inspections and 5,267 prosecutions launched in 2012-13.

Under the Equal Remuneration Act, only 2,881 inspections were conducted in 2013-14 against 4,167 in 2012-13, with the number of prosecutions launched at 831 against 773, respectively.

Even in the area of child labour, the number of inspections in 2013-14 fell to 1,380 from 2,421 in 2013-13, with no prosecution launched in 2013-14 against only 74 in the previous year.

Only 609 inspections were conducted and 11 prosecutions launched in 2013-14 under the payment of Bonus Act, against 905 inspections and 39 prosecutions launched in 2012-13.

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