Labour Policy and Reforms in India : An Analysis

The changed economic scenario in India has made the issues of labour a central point. The private as well as foreign investors are demanding more reforms in labour sector. Labour reforms should be under taken carefully without undermining the self esteem, dignity of the labour, but bring in work discipline and remove the redundant labour. Hence Labour Reforms essentially refers to steps taken to increase production, productivity and employment opportunities in the economy without hurting the overall interest of labour. Essentially it means skill development, retraining, redeployment, updating knowledge base of workers/trainers and promotion of leadership qualities etc. The labour force was 277.34 millions in 1983 which increased to 468.8 million in 2009-10. The Public sector share in the organized sector is shrinking both in absolute terms and percentage terms. It was 187.72 lakh in 1990, which was 71.23% of total organized sector which gradually shrinked to 175.48 million in 2011 which is 60.5 percent of the total employment in organized workers. The government is having the two-pronged strategy i.e., legislative measures and implementation of welfare scheme and programmes. The legislative measures include the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the workmen's Compensation Act, 1923, the Maternity Benefit Act 1961, the bonded labour system (abolition) Act, 1976, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, the Interstate Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act, 1979, the Building and other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act, 1996, etc. The future of strengthening the reforms and the conditions of laborers lie in the labour reforms in India