Labourers in the informal sector of Pakistan and other south Asian countries are living under worst condition and they are not being provided social security and relief.
This was the crux of the seminar on “Labouring Poor in South Asia: Challenges of Expanding Informalization” organised jointly by South Asia Partnership-Pakistan (SAP-Pakistan) and Pakistan Institute for Labour Research (PILER). German Sociologist Prof Jan Breman, who is working on labouring poor’s plight and related issues as a researcher in India for half a century, was the chief guest.
In his keynote address on Labouring Poor in Pakistan and Poverty, Prof Berman expressed concerns over the pathetic situation of starving labouring poor of south Asian countries.
He said there was a very close relationship among the poverty and poor labouring class.
The labouring class was totally powerless and invisible and these people work and toil very hard but in spite of that they always remain poor because they are not acknowledged by the state and the society, he said, adding that there was no space for them regarding what masses feel about them in spite of that they have a very deep connection with the economic and social crisis.
Highlighting implications of social sector in India, he said that there were 4.8 millions of labouring poor and among them 93 percent were working with informal sector and half of them were in the formal sector, but they are not being given their legal rights as workers. Labouring poor’s conditions is also the same in Pakistan, he said.
While, the PILER Executive Director Kramat Ali said that 90 percent people were working in the informal sector, citing that in many private, government organisations and multi-national companies’ workers were not being given equal status and there were no rules and regulations or legal rights for all the workers which led to injustice and discrimination.
About implications of Industrial Relations Law, he said that this was also a discriminatory labour law, which deprived the right of unionising of the workers and under this law inspection of the factories was prohibited, therefore, industrial hazards were increasing in Pakistan.
He said contract job was again a damaging system for the labouring poor, while, most of the women are home-based workers and there was no security or protection or any legal and social bindings to protect their rights.
A labour leader and Director Working Women Organisation, Rubeena Jamil said, the policy of promoting informal sector infect was very tactfully manipulated to minimise the wages of workers and raising the profit and capital. She also condemned this attitude towards labouring poor class and said this was immorality to cut the wages and devalued the workers to create a space for informal sector expansion. This policy was very popular among the employers because this led the labouring poor to be more disorganised and deprived them of the right so that they could never get organised to fight for their rights, she maintained.
The SAP-PK Deputy Director Irfan Mufti demanded that labouring poor of Pakistan must be accepted as workers by the state and be given their due rights.
