What Do People Live On? Living Wages in India

What Do People Live On? Living Wages in India Subhadra Mitra Channa, University of Delhi Abstract The question of what people are expected to live on raises many issues, foregrounding the rather metaphysical question of how people are viewed as people. To argue for the implementation of a really viable living wage one would have to argue against the dehumanization of bodies, of construction of personhoods that demean humans, and to visualize a change in worldview and perceptual categories. Living wage discussions on India must go beyond economies to address the cultural/cosmological factors that mark power relations and shape social categories, and this must be done against the backdrop of overpopulation and abject poverty. Keywords: living wage, right to work, Indian state, caste values, unorganized labor Introduction The concept of living wage In this paper I will focus on the issue of the constitutional (the Indian Constitution) introduction of the concept of ‘‘living wages’’ in India and the problems in its implementation. My main focus will be on the cultural and ideological values that foster notions of inequality between human beings in India and situate the argument in the caste/class system, in view of the fact that in South Asia, the caste system provides the basis of most of one’s identity both socially and politically (Zinkin 1962:8; see also Dirks 2001:7, 16).1 To talk about a living wage raises many interesting philosophical and ethical questions. First of all, unlike the concept of ‘‘minimum wage’’ that assumes a direct relationship between labor and compensation for labor or work done, the concept of living wage raises issues of human rights, especially the right to survival and dignity. The concept of living wage does not match wages with work done but with the requirements or needs of the laborer. As a concept it is on a different plane than the mere concept of wages or even minimum wages. It does not evaluate merely the quality or quantity of work but the quantity and quality of the worker’s needs, thereby taking the concept of wages out of the market equation of exchange and putting it in the realm of larger human values. The concept of living wages, then, is situated away from the market; it is not an exchange, it is an Volume XXXI, Number 1 assessment of humanity and of the needs that a humanized subject is visualized to have. In other words, in a market economy the laborer is an abstract entity, a figure that is placed on an exchange network. But as soon as we talk about a living wage we bring in a concept of a living human being with the needs of being human and not merely a unit of labor. The immediate issues that are raised in this respect are with how social personhood is defined, whether the society in question views all human beings as equal, and what the defining criteria of rights are: do they attach themselves to humans in general, or to culturally defined social positions? In this context it is relevant to bring in the notion of ‘‘entitlement’’ as introduced by the Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen, who defines it as ‘‘the set of alternative commodity bundles which a person can command’’ (Sen 1981:46). This concept directs attention away from pure economics to the political, social, and cultural relations whereby entitlements are worked out among the market exchange, the state, and its subjects, and also within the same household. As Sen had rightly pointed out, individuals are not simply numbers but have distinct social, political, and cultural identities including gender (Kapadia 1995:214).2 To talk about living wages is to weave the argument around this notion of entitlement, what is expected to be the entitlement of a person in terms of his/her social personhood, rather than labor contribution. What anyone receives as food and wages is often determined by such factors as caste and gender and other factors such as race and ethnicity. Hussain (1999:3) further enriches the concept of entitlement by saying, ‘‘The other side of entitlement, which is less abstract and more immediate, is the notion of ‘‘vulnerable group,’’ sharing some common features which make them susceptible to deprivation.’’ As Dreze (1999:72) states, in India it has traditionally been the landless laborers and rural artisans who have had to face discrimination in terms of consumption and often have to face hunger as a result of that. To this I must add that both these groups are largely comprised of the lower castes and untouchables in the Indian caste system, a category not deemed quite human and therefore deprived of their rightful entitlement (Mendelsohn and Vicziany 1998:7, 13).3 & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 15 Anthropology of Work Review To get people a living wage one must calculate this entitlement in terms of a universal category of needs. We may therefore situate the argument in the cultural historical conditions of construction of this subject, a subject that is denied its rights by the very virtue of its being. I shall first examine the approach of the Indian state towards living wage that shows the state as having humanistic concerns and the notion of a ‘‘citizen’’ of India as one who is endowed with human qualities within a democratic and equalitarian framework. The post-colonial Indian state is comprised of democratically elected leaders and a bureaucracy of educated elite, who enter it through competitive examinations. While the leaders are overtly involved in policymaking, they are both guided and informed by the bureaucratic intellectuals, especially the members of the planning commission and the state secretaries. The state in abstraction is also to be viewed as the representations of the ideals on which the nation is founded, thus the term nation-state has been used in the post-colonial context. When I refer to the state it is this combination of ideals and personnel that are being referring to. The apex leader, the prime-minister, is viewed as providing the broad vision on which the state is based; he/she acts in unison with the ideals of the party represented by him or her, but ultimately it is the bureaucracy and then the lower-level officials who are responsible for implementation of these policies.4 In discussing the various policies of the state directed towards ensuring livelihood and survival of its citizens, it must be remembered that the state is not always uniform in its ideals, as different political parties and individuals have been in power and successive governments have held varying views. But broadly the welfare programs are implemented through the planning commissions and bureaucracy and thus have a continuity that may override the changes in political parties and governments. In the second part of the paper (the most comprehensive, as I have greater expertise in this area with my experience as an anthropologist), I shall describe the reality of the social and economic situation in India and show that there is a huge gap between the constitutional vision and the ground-level realities. In the third part of the paper, I shall discuss why this gap exists and the age-old values and prejudices that hinder the effective implementation of the state’s well-meant intentions and principles. Since these values are held by the people and it is ultimately the people who form both the bureaucracy and the government, it is to be expected that at the level of implementation the human factor is to play a more decisive role than at the level of policymaking, which subscribes to the more abstract character of the nation. Volume XXXI, Number 1 The state, policymakers, and policies The modern Indian state is an end product of several hundred years of colonial rule and like most other previously colonized countries, based upon a vision of modernity inspired by the West. The persons who formed the first set of leaders to both free the nation from colonization and also give it its initial government were largely educated in the west and also upper class and caste, the reason being that only the elite could avail of education having both money and the opportunity for it.5 Shyamlal looks towards ‘‘untouchability’’ as having kept the low castes out of the political struggle to free India.6 ‘‘Those agitating, opposing the British rule and demanding the national freedom were the Brahmins and other high caste people . . . their fear of getting polluted from the untouchables prevented them from being associated with them in such struggle’’(2008:97; see also Narayan 2009). Thus there was a contradiction inherent from the beginning that those professing equality and liberty overtly may not all have been in their private ideals free from traditional prejudices, especially those of caste. Therefore in the initial period modernity was equated more with technology than with social reform. The first prime minister of the Indian nationstate was a British-educated lawyer, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (A Kashmiri Brahmin), with a liberal outlook. He had a vision of a very modern India (Mendelsohn and Vicziany 1998:14), based upon principles of socialism and with an industrialized economy. Nehru was known for his liberal socialist ideas, and India began as a mixed economy with many of the key economic sectors such as steel and mines under state control. Even today the government of India is the largest employer that exists in India. As Doron (2008:49–50) describes, ‘‘The modern Indian state was premised upon the democratic ideal of social justice, universal rule of law and the constitutional granting of rights to its citizens’’ (see also Bayley 1999:154–162). In fact, builders of modern India, in the shape of its leaders, mostly represented by the Indian National Congress confronted the colonial regime with exactly these values of equality and liberty.7 At the time the Constitution of India was drafted it was unanimously assumed that all citizens of India were equally human and deserved to be given equal rights. There was never a question regarding universal suffrage and giving equal rights of vote, liberty, and education to all irrespective of caste, religion, and sex. India was imagined as a nation based on the values of equality and liberty, for as Anderson (1991:7) points out, a nation is ‘‘imagined as a community because regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 16 Anthropology of Work Review comradeship.’’ Even today India is a signatory to almost all charters of human rights, women’s rights, and environmental rights. Almost every elected or nominated head of state of India has had a reputation for being secular and liberal in their attitude.8 Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, alumnus of Columbia University and the London School of Economics and a prominent lawyer and labor activist, was the first law minister in Nehru’s cabinet, chairing the committee that framed the first Constitution of India. He belonged to the one of the lowest untouchable castes, the Mahars, and he began his political life as a labor leader of the factory workers in the then Bombay state in Western India during the last phase of the colonial rule (Omvedt 1993).9 The vision that was promoted by Ambedkar in the constitution encompassed his own experience living in the coolie barracks in the factory areas. The welfare of labor was something that must have been close to his heart (Bayley 1999:270–271). But even as he read out the constitution, Ambedkar had been skeptical of its proper implementation for he knew that within Indian society were ingrained hierarchical values derived from a worldview engendered in a feudal caste-based society. Thus Ambedkar’s observation in this final address to the Constituent Assembly: ‘‘In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value’’ (CAD 1950:979). In another place Ambedkar had observed, ‘‘The Hindus are the only people in the world whose economic order – the relation of workman to workman – is consecrated by religion and made sacred, eternal and inviolate’’ (Ambedkar 1987). With reference to the Varna hierarchy as embodied in the ancient texts, the social order is based on the separation of the universe into four hierarchical divisions: the Brahmins occupy the highest position and are the ritual performers and intellectuals (the only people who can read and teach the shastras; the Kshatriyas (warriors and kings) are next; the Vaishyas (traders, cultivators-landlords) the third; and the Shudras (those who perform menial labor) the last and lowest (see Smith 1994:7).10 Even among the last those who perform degrading and more polluting tasks like scavenging, cleaning, washing clothes, etc., are often considered untouchables. Thus labor is ideologically delegated to the lowest position in the Indian social hierarchy and subsequently the entire concept of a living wage was lost in the evaluative framework of caste and inequalities of personhood that is still pervasive in India (Bayley 1999:29; Massey 1997; Badri Narayan 2009). Although such discriminations may manifest themselves in other societies in terms of class, race, and ethnicity and may be as deeply rooted, in India and South Asia in general, they Volume XXXI, Number 1 are marked by the social concept of caste that has a near-genetic connotation, and also by a philosophy of devaluing physical labor against mental activities. So here it is not simply that people are graded but work is graded also. The manual work done by labor is put at the bottom of the scale and all such work, often unpaid, was traditionally done by the lowest caste, often untouchables. In rural India the agrarian system was based on an exchange of labor for grain and other essentials so that one got from the system according to one’s social status and not one’s equivalence in terms of work. As has been shown by numerous ethnographies, those at the bottom of the social and ritual scale received the least (Mendelsohn and Vicziany 1998:30–34; Kapadia 1995; Bama 2005).11 In an essay based on census and survey data such as from the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), Deshpande (2003) confronts with a rich array of facts and figures that show conclusively that the lower castes and the marginal tribes are among the most poor and disadvantaged in terms of jobs and calorie deficient of the Indian population. Thus the elite leadership, responsible for forging policies and also implementing them, were also part of the feudal, divisive inequalities and deeply ingrained values that were in opposition to the universal humanity professed in the Constitution of India. With reference to Indian society, Stephen Tylor has said it is divided into ‘‘the dominant,’’ ‘‘the dependent,’’ and ‘‘the degraded’’ (c.f. Omvedt 1993:35). One can safely presume that the leadership came mostly from the dominant rather than the other two groups. In fact Omvedt (1993:89) describes the Indian National Congress at the time of its nationalist struggle as a party of upper-caste landlords who ‘‘up to the very end tended to oppose anti-landlord legislation and the efforts to protect peasants and tenants’’ and gives the example of one prominent congress leader, Balgangadhar Tilak’s, support of money lenders usurping the lands of poor peasants saying it was their ‘‘right and should not be confused for the sake of ‘‘humanity.’’ The nationalist movement precipitated upper caste hegemony ‘‘within an emerging racially/ ethnically based ‘Hindu nationalism’ or Hindutva’ in which upper castes were identified as ‘Aryans’ ’’ (Omvedt 1993:89; see also Chakravorty 1990:50) and Ambedkar too dubbed the Congress party as ‘‘Brahmin and Bourgeois.’’12 Thus referring to the historical and political analysis of the situation that existed in India at the time of its emergence as a nation, there were cultural, historical values and deeply ingrained social divides that made the imposition of a just and fair legislative system nearly unattainable and which still keeps a majority of India’s population below the poverty line. Even most elected leaders had their own reluctance to & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 17 Anthropology of Work Review implement such liberal legislations. Shah (2001:36) corroborates by saying, ‘‘These leaders belonging to the ruling parties have done little to implement laws enacted for the benefit of the poorer strata of their communities.’’ Legal measures in India regarding a living wage and labor welfare Thus the article on living wage described below represents the ideals of the abstract nation, the secular and just society that was imagined but that was not supported, and is still not supported, by the lived realities of Indian society. Therefore as we see, the paperwork often remained on paper and it took many years for any kind of actual action to take place, but in this process the actual philosophy of living wage that is the equivalence of ‘‘one person, one wage’’ envisaged by Ambedkar was lost and so were most of the notions of fair wages, equality, and justice for all. Article 43 of the Constitution of India under the title of ‘‘living wages’’ states: ‘‘The State shall endeavor to secure, by suitable legislation or economic organization or in any other way, to all workers, agricultural, industrial or other wise, work, a living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities and, in particular, the State shall endeavor to promote cottage industries on an individual or co-operative basis in rural India.’’ However, this article was never actually implemented in any way as a living wage act but was converted to its practical manifestation as a minimum wage act. In principle this act, too, incorporated some ideas of what a decent wage should be in fairly comprehensive terms. The groundwork for framing the constitution had begun early, even before India actually gained independence. In 1943, a Labour Organizing Committee was appointed to investigate questions of wages, housing, social conditions of labor, etc., and a Committee for Fair Wages was set up in 1948 to provide guidelines for wage structure in the country. The report of this committee was a major landmark in the history of formulation of wage policy in India. Its recommendations set out the key concepts of the living wage, minimum wages, and fair wage, besides setting out guidelines for wage fixation. From the onset the values incorporated were liberal and universal. In its formulation, particular attention was also paid to Article 39 of the constitution that states (a) that the citizen, men, and women equally shall have the right to an adequate livelihood and (b) that there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women. A Minimum Wages Bill was considered by the Indian Labor Conference in 1945 and a bill by that Volume XXXI, Number 1 name only was introduced and passed in 1946 and came into effect from March 15th, 1948. The ‘‘social conditions’’ mentioned in 1943 are effectively debated only in the Indian Labour Conference held in 1957, which lays out the following guidelines for considering a minimum wage, ostensibly incorporating within it the concept of a living wage: 1. Three consumption units per earner. 2. Minimum food requirement of 2,700 calories per average Indian adult. 3. Clothing requirements of 72 yards per annum per family. 4. Rent corresponding to the minimum area provided for under the Government’s Industrial Housing Scheme (Indian Government). 5. Fuel, lighting, and other miscellaneous items of expenditure to constitute 20% of the minimum wages. 6. Children’s education, medical requirements, minimum recreation including festivals/ceremonies, and provision for old age, marriage, etc., should be 25% of the minimum wages. The last clause was not there in the original considerations but was incorporated as late as 1991 in a judgment issued by the Supreme Court of India in the case of Reptakos Brett & Co. vs. Its Workers. To all practical purposes, although a minimum wages bill existed, no action seems to have been taken until 1996, when the national floor minimum wage was fixed at 35/- rupees a day per person. The Central government raised it to Rs. 45 per day in 1998, which went into effect on December 1st, 1999. It was further raised to Rs. 50 per day (September 1st, 2002) and Rs. 66 per day (February 1st, 2004). The minimum wages bill is also implemented differentially in the different regional states of India.13 If anyone has any idea of cost of living in India, even in the most remote area, this sum of money can in no way guarantee a full diet as well as minimum requirements of housing, clothing, medicine, and health care. Education of children, recreation, and marriage are out of the question. An idea of a minimum wage was mooted in 1943 and was developed in fits and starts until about 1991, when the first legal judgment favoring labor was passed by the Indian apex law court. Nothing was said about the actual amount fixed until much later, and even then it in no way fulfilled the ideals set out in the constitution and the practical translation of it as discussed in the Labor Conference in 1957. The prominent social worker and human rights activist Swami Aginivesh has in one of his publications and circulars clearly chalked out a comprehensive living wage program, much in line with the international discussions on this issue. According to & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 18 Anthropology of Work Review Aginivesh, a need-based minimum wage should be based on the following calculations:  Minimum food requirement calculated on the basis of a net intake of 2700 calories per consumption unit.  Minimum clothing requirement estimated at a per capita consumption of 18 yards per annum.  Minimum housing requirement of 400 sq. feet per family at the rent charged by government for similar accommodation under any subsidized Industrial Housing Scheme for low-income groups.  Fuel, lighting, and other requirements estimated to constitute 25 percent of the minimum wage. In estimating the above basic needs for determination of the minimum wage, the standard working class family shall be taken to consist of three consumption units (husband or wife as the case may be, and two children) for one earner, the earnings of women and children being disregarded. The need-based minimum wages will thus be 50% more than the total cost of food, lighting, and housing, when we add the 25% as decided in the Raptakos Brett case (already reported above). While in calculating a decent living wage Agnivesh comes to the conclusion that it should be at least 80 rupees per day per person, he is also mindful of the fact that the amount of wage, especially when calculated on the basis of a day-based or contract laborer, is meaningless unless at least there is a guarantee of at least 250 labor days per year or 25 days per month.14 Agnivesh is critical of those who try to say that such a payment is not feasible: The only question that remains is what the several ingredients (of food, clothing and housing) of Need Based Minimum Wage will work out to, in money terms, in different parts and places in the country. Of these, the most difficult is in regard to food, as the composition of the diet is a matter of dispute, particularly as to whether it is acceptable in terms of nutritional requirements or affordable in financial terms. In the kind of dispute, some tend to forget, rather conveniently, that article 47 of the Constitution of India mandates that the state shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties. Affordability in financial terms also comes up as an argument, among the elite and the ruling classes, only when the satisfaction of the basic needs of the poor and vulnerable is the issue! (www.swamiagnivesh.com) By the end of the twentieth century, the then head of state, Rajiv Gandhi, had aspirations to modernize and push India as one of the most developed Volume XXXI, Number 1 nations of the world. He floated the idea of the decentralized governance by the medium of the Panchayati Raj and made serious efforts to bring governance closer to the grass roots.15 The Narasimha Rao (Congress) led government in 1992 was able to get the bill passed and implement the constitutional reforms in terms of the 23rd Amendment, that would bring governance closer to the people. Realizing that getting to the roots of inequality was essential for future development of the country and also to maintain internal peace, the state further put forward some improved programs, like the NREGA. In order to give some degree of secure employment to people, especially those working in the unorganized sector or those who are self-employed (especially in the rural areas), the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was introduced. With this program a new perspective, namely a human rightsbased approach, was introduced under the right to work.16 This program came into force in September 2005 (largely guided by the congress president Social Gandhi and prime minister Manmohan Singh) as a rights-based program that makes the state legally accountable to provide wage employment to those who demand it. It also aims to strengthen decentralized planning and implementation by making Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) the implementing agency for the scheme.17 However, this too comes across as a half-hearted scheme as the state stipulates a guarantee of only 100 days a year under the NREGA. Also, the amount of money to be paid varies from 45–60 and does not go up to Rs. 80/- as calculated by Swami Agnivesh. Even in this rather deficient scheme, the results on the ground are way below expectations. According to a Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) report, a mere 10 percent or 0.22 crore (of 2.10 crore) employed households received the full 100 days of promised work. The average employment per household was 43 days in 2006–07 and 35 days in 2007–08; thus the overall impact on the economic well-being of a poor household is clearly small as of now. At its very best, even within the human rights paradigm, the best that the state is willing to do is far below the fair requirements of a living wage.18 Although a minimal unemployment allowance is mandatory under the NREGA, state governments in general have desisted from paying unemployment allowances to below the poverty level (BPL) job seekers under this act. At least that was the finding of a national study on the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in the implementation of NREGA during April to December 2007 by PRIA, an NGO. As much as 68 percent of the 4,680 households surveyed in 20 districts of 13 states covered by the NREGA had not & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 19 Anthropology of Work Review been provided with a job within the stipulated period of 15 days as specified under the law. Yet, the state authorities had denied payment of unemployment allowance to them. The functionaries of PRIA, Manoj Rai and Rakesh Kumar Sinha, maintained that no beneficiary under the scheme had been paid unemployment allowance by the state governments in violation of the law. The states surveyed were Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. The reason: these states were unwilling to dole out the money. Such payments reflected poorly on the performance of the state and the officials concerned, who could invite penal action. (The Hindu 11th Oct, 2008). Thus there is a further complexity involved: the complete apathy of the state officials towards implementing any program for the poor. The last part of the news item is also interesting in that if they pay unemployment allowance it would be revealed that they have made no efforts to provide employment in the first place. One must also question why there is such an anti-poor attitude of the state officials, a fact that is often brought to light by reports and studies. For example, in the human rights watch report prepared by Smita Narula (1999:28) it is explicitly mentioned that ‘‘regulations that prohibit alienation of Dalit lands, set ceiling on a single landowner’s holdings, or allocate surplus government lands to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have been largely ignored, or worse manipulated by upper castes with the help of district administrators.’’ The Indian state is run by a huge machinery of bureaucrats, not unlike the German context (Weber 1947), known in popular parlance as ‘‘Babu raj,’’ referring back to the colonial era when the British ran their empire with the help of locally recruited people, selected mostly from the upper castes, to implement their rule (often tyrannical) on the local people. It is well recognized in India that even after independence the ‘‘babus’’ (name by which the British called their clerical staff) retain their attitude of indifference and are sometimes hostile towards the common man. In popular media the ‘‘babu’’ is often stereotyped as corrupt and inefficient. For example, in the advertisement of a reputed tea company (Tata Tea), the camera spans over various images of officials accepting bribes and then says,‘‘ They eat [accept bribes] because we give them to eat. Now wake up, stop eating and start drinking’’; a steaming cup of tea appears on the screen. The advertisement is to be interpreted as a complex of several messages: first that officials are as a rule corrupt, second that they are corrupt because the civil society allows them to be so by giving in to their demands, and third, of course, that if you drink Volume XXXI, Number 1 this popular brand of tea your thinking will improve (see also Chowdhury 2006). In spite of legislations for reservation of posts for members of the lower castes and marginal groups, most upper echelon officials continue to be members of the elite caste/class groups of society (Ram 2008:17; Deshpande 2003:196). In fact, data quoted by Deshpande (198) shows that in addition to the upper echelons of government service, upper castes predominate even in the high ranks of the private sector, where Brahmins are represented in disproportionately large numbers. ‘‘There is also less formal or micro-level evidence that the lower castes are severely underrepresented in all the modern professions including the academic professions’’ (Deshpande 199). Thus there is enough data and research to indicate that most people responsible for implementation of policies – and even to influence them, such as higher-rung government officials, professors, and economists – are upper caste and class. It becomes evident that the attempts at the more abstract level of legislation to create conditions legally and politically for a just society failed at the level of actuality where little by way of social justice has yet been achieved in India. The Reality The poorest and most exploited sector of labor in India is in the unorganized sector because they are comprised largely of the untouchables, or Dalit castes of society. They are the landless poor who are pushed out at the slightest exigency. ‘‘Most of the fast growing number of Untouchables who have migrated for work outside their village are to be found on building sites and roads in the towns and cities, quarrying rock and making bricks, pulling rickshaws and handcarts, scavenging for waste materials or occasionally performing some acquired but low prestige skill such as repairing motor vehicles’’ (Mendelsohn and Vicziany 1998:34). Again no one can claim that the untouchables are the only poor people in India. The tribes, often displaced from their homelands by projects such as dams, are also desperately poor and form part of such workforces as do other marginalized caste groups who have lost their traditional work in the spate of capitalist penetration, such as Gaduliya Lohars (blacksmiths) and folk artists and performers). There are also the minorities such as poor Muslims and other groups including the poor from the upper castes. But there is an ideological convergence of the categories of being poor, working class, and low caste. People may be stigmatized as equivalent to untouchables because they are performing menial labor. For example, in a television report, the poor Brahmins were caught on camera saying that they would rather starve than do menial work alongside the & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 20 Anthropology of Work Review untouchables. Thus there is an inextricable link between poverty, caste, and discrimination that pervades most sections of Indian society. In any of India’s large cities, what one gets to see on a construction site are men, women, and children huddled into temporary shelters built on site near any major construction work, made out of pieces of cloth, rubber or tarpaulin sheets, raw bricks, etc. They are little more than kennels that barely cover the head and body of a person in a sitting position. While mothers are working, small babies are put inside temporary cloth hammocks hung on a nearby tree, or are simply left on the ground to play in the dirt. Quite often one hears a baby wailing for its mother who may be away or too busy to attend to it. With the strong legislation against child labor children are not employed formally at such sites but may work informally with their parents, or help by taking care of smaller siblings or cooking and cleaning up.19 They are always meagerly dressed, barefoot and dirty, with noses running and matted hair. If one watches what the people eat for a meal – never more than two per day– it is always either a stack of dry wheat roti (a kind of flat bread) or rice (if they are from a rice-eating zone) and water. There is no effort to provide potable water, and the laborers drink any kind of water available at the construction site. To get work is highly competitive and ‘‘claims for higher wages are the stuff of bitter, even violent conflict’’ (Mendelsohn and Vicziany 1998:32). Quite often if the poor ask for their rights they are subjected to violence and are sure to lose the job. Based on published government reports, Massey (1997:27) has summed up the three main reasons for violence committed on vulnerable and weak sections of Indian society. They are: ‘‘1) unresolved disputes related to allotment of government land or distribution of surplus land to landless; 2) tension and bitterness created by non-payment or underpayment of minimum wages prescribed by state governments; and 3) resentment against the Dalit’s manifestation of awareness of their own rights.’’ I remember once talking to a young couple from Rajasthan who were struggling to keep out the cold on a chilly winter night, sitting out in the open since they had no hut or shelter, as they were at that time not employed. They just sat out in the cold, smoking hemp, to somehow create an illusion of comfort. Their story was so typical of thousands of such men and women. The man was too shy to speak about their misfortune. But the woman said: There was a drought in our village two years back. We have no land in the village and we got a living by working on other people’s fields but Volume XXXI, Number 1 since there was no rain, there were no crops and no work for us. We came to the city to look for work and worked on a construction site. But my husband fell down from a height while working and sustained a lot of injuries. We had to get him treated but incurred a lot of debt in the process.20 We are now wandering from here to there, doing whatever work we can. When we have food we eat or we have to rely on this [indicating her ganja cigarette] to suppress our pangs of hunger. [She pointed to a small huddle sleeping inside a tiny improvised tent.] That is our daughter. We also have to think about getting her married. But for a long time my husband could not work because of his injuries. I did whatever I could but it was never enough. This is a common enough story. The landless are the first to be pushed out of the agrarian economy for they are at the bottom of the ladder, and when supplies dry up as in a drought or even flood, they are first to lose their subsistence. Dreze (1999:73) refers to a recurring scenario where ‘‘landless labourers found little employment as field activity was brought to a standstill while general impoverishment simultaneously enlarged supply of casual labour.’’ More importantly, such deprivation is not necessarily an outcome of overall lack of resources, for ‘‘another important aspect of the received analysis of nineteenth century famines is the view that entitlement failures occurred among plenty rather than in the context of fierce battle for scare food’’ (Dreze 73). Thus some people get pushed out of the system because of their vulnerable social position and the city streets are the only place where they can come and their labor the only thing they can sell. But the bodies are vulnerable to malnutrition and accidents – for which there is no insurance – and disease. The body cannot always provide the means to subsistence and then it is only starvation. For the contractors or middlemen who round them up for employment, the landless are only figures, and if injured or sick, all they get is a reprimand or cut wages or unemployment. In a country of a billion people, there is always enough of a labor supply to fill in the gaps. Even more than 50 years after India got a constitution that vowed to put human rights and a decent life for all citizens on its agenda, India still has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 350–400 million are living below the poverty line, 75 percent of them in the rural areas. More than 40 percent of the population is illiterate, with women, tribal, and scheduled castes particularly affected. The definition of poverty line as given by the government of India is at Rs.10 per day per person, & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 21 Anthropology of Work Review and the number of people at present in India who are expected to be below the line of poverty is 300 million, which roughly approximates to about the same as the number of unemployed. However, the latter category includes only those who are employable, which tends to mean able-bodied, adult, and not too old. The real number of poor people would actually be much higher if we include those who would be dependent or unable to work. Work itself is of varying degrees of security, and again the most secure work is provided by the organized public sector – that is, by the state, which employs about 19 million people in India. It is only in this sector that a minimum wage is ensured. The organized private sector that includes multinational companies employs about 8 million, and among these 8 million are also some of the most well-paid people in India, to the tune of more than a hundred thousand rupees a month. However, most people in India work in the unorganized sector, like the couple I described, and have little or no job security and are not protected by any laws. The number of such people is about 320 million. Political rhetoric on this issue has been ongoing. For example, the Hindu, a prominent national newspaper in India, reported the following news item: Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) secretary and former MP Dipankar Mukherjee on Sunday exhorted workers employed in the organized sector to work for the welfare of their counterparts in unorganized sector. Expressing concern over the ‘‘exploitation’’ of unorganized sector workers, Mr. Mukherjee said despite several agitations to mount pressure on the government to ensure minimum wages to unorganized sector workers, the government did not enact legislations that would help in alleviating the conditions of the unorganized sector. Mr. Mukherjee said a majority of the more than 40 crore workers in the country were in unorganized sector and over 15 crore of them were unemployed most part of the year.21 There was a steep increase in the number of people opting for jobs in unorganized sector as the unemployed felt that ‘‘some job is better than no job.’’ This was, in turn, leading to their exploitation by the capitalist class, he added. (Hindu 1st Dec, 2008) Numerous speeches like this made on many platforms and by many interested political agents indeed show that if anything else, there is no lack of awareness of what should be done or what the problem is, and also most are aware of the ‘‘correct approach’’ to the issue. Volume XXXI, Number 1 The values regarding labor and the vision of a third world country In the living wage ordinance of the Santa Fe City Council, passed on February 27th 2003, clause H. says: When businesses do not pay a livable wage, the community bears the cost in the form of increased demand for taxpayer-funded social services including homeless shelters, soup kitchens and health care for the uninsured. Coupled with high real estate values, low wages reduce the ability of low and moderate income residents to access affordable housing. In addition, mention is made of supplementing schools, recreation facilities, and so on. In India, although the state is morally and legally responsible to provide for basic needs of its citizens under the various acts of its constitution, the actual implementation of such provisions were not given much importance. The reasons affecting this lack of actual action to implement the written laws are complex and multivariate. First the image of India as a third-world country: from immediately after the country became independent in 1947, the leaders proclaimed that overall growth, rather than individual needs, was of primary concern. In the name of national interest and patriotism, it was proclaimed that India should first invest in mega-projects like dams and industries, and then look towards the people. Political rhetoric, for example, often includes phrases that refer to the ‘‘sacrifices’’ that people are expected to make in national interest. An added factor may be the successive wars India was forced to fight with its neighbors until the mid 70s. The importance given to larger and more pressing issues such as national security, overall growth, and patriotism may be among the reasons that while the concept of a living wage was introduced as early as 1943, no action on its basis has been taken until as late as 1991, when the Supreme Court passed a judgment in favor of labor. The state (including the governments led by different political parties) had considered its prime duty to project figures of gross GDP and statistical growth indexes rather than focus on how each individual was doing. It is almost still the case. When Indian leaders proclaimed that ‘‘India is Shining’’ on the basis of statistics they obscure the fact that people are dying of hunger or committing suicide because of debt (Nagesh Kumar 1998). There is also the vested interest of political parties across the board to hide the caste inequalities that are obviously at work in the poverty equation. As Deshpande (2003:181) explains it, ‘‘This active postIndependence antipathy towards caste was the joint product of, first, the nationalist movement and its & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 22 Anthropology of Work Review campaign against caste distinctions, and second, a reaction against what were seen as deliberate colonial policies to create and sharpen divisions among the Indian people.’’ Thus there was and is in India a tendency for the political elite of all parties to project the best and hide the worst in the name of national pride. Next, we must consider the role of community and family. In India, individuals are seen as the responsibility of the family and community rather than the state. It is expected that individuals who fall below the level of subsistence or require care will be taken care of by family members, or even the larger community like the village or caste councils. To a very large extent this is also true. Until very recently most Indians never felt the need of foster homes, or old age homes, or orphanages. Still a majority of them do not. However when in distressed circumstances, the family has to bear the brunt of the exigency which might lead them into more distressing situations or force some family members to make sacrifices. Almost every family in India has stories to tell about how an elder brother had to sacrifice his studies to look after his younger siblings when the father suddenly died, or a sister who did not marry for the same reason; there are brothers who brought up the children of dead sisters and so on. In fact in my own experience I hardly know of any Indian family that does not have such a story, not even one. Dickey (2002:219–224) describes the collective efforts of a financially vulnerable family to keep itself afloat and also to educate and improve the lot of its members. (see also Jeffery and Jeffery 2002:23–36). To a large extent the community plays an important role, especially the caste-based community. In my own fieldwork on the launderers (Dhobis) of Delhi, a low caste with the traditional occupation of washing clothes, I had shown that many people preferred to stay on with their traditional occupation and in proximity to their caste members because of the notion of ‘‘brotherhood’’ of the caste members who form a support group and also in many cases effective ‘‘micro-credit’’ systems (Channa 1985). Villages, too, will normally pool in to take care of any members who were unable to take care of themselves. When a collective disaster strikes, like a famine or a drought, there would definitely be some people who fall through and may not survive. Thus the state is motivated into action only when it perceives the situation as beyond the management level of family and community, or in other words a major disaster. But it does not feel committed to individuals, as the state feels they are to be taken care of by the family, and families are to be taken care of by the community. In fact more work is done in this respect by the religious groups and nongovernmental organizations than is done by the state. Volume XXXI, Number 1 The Values About an Unequal World Most in India look upon the universe as a divinely ordained unequal world in which everyone has their own duty (dharma) and must do their tasks accordingly (karma). Thus the wealthy upper castes have as their duty to look after the poor and lower castes, who also as their duty must serve those who are providing them with food. The traditional caste system worked on this principle and there was no concept of evaluation of labor in terms of equivalent returns whether in terms of cash or kind (Leach 1960; Milner 1994; Deliege 1997). The lower castes provided all kinds of services only in return for maintenance that was entirely dependant upon the munificence of the provider. In fact one of Ambedkar’s first efforts as a labor leader was to try to convert unpaid village labor into wage labor. Even today in the interior and rural areas, such unpaid servants provide much of the labor. Many people who live in the city try to get some poor person from their native village to come and work for them for free, only in return for food and lodging. I talked to a young man who was driving a rickshaw in Delhi, having migrated from his native village in Bihar. He told me that he had had his first cash earning only after coming to the city; in the village they were only paid in kind. The level of such food and lodging was always minimal; a few handfuls of rice or rotis (Indian bread), a few worn-out clothes, and a corner to sleep in. In a recent article in a leading newspaper, Madhok (2010) writes with reference to the urban poor, ‘‘The problem is one of an elitist politician-bureaucrat nexus marked by a common barely disguised hostility to the urban poor. . . . Some issues arise. If the Delhi government were to implement its own laws and enforce the minimum wages that it declares at periodic intervals, then homeless daily wagers may be able to afford rented housing.’’ In fact this report, which tells about laborers being ill-treated by employers and the system, both encapsulates and illustrates much of what I have been arguing in this paper. There is a definite dehumanization of working people in India reflected also in the treatment meted to domestic workers (servants). While most people, even if only slightly well to do, employ servants (not because they are wealthy but because to do any kind of menial work is socially stigmatized), few treat them as fellow human beings. If you asked someone why they do not give a piece of warm clothing to their servant shivering in the cold, they would be very surprised and say, ‘‘They do not feel cold.’’ More would be shocked if you suggested that they share what they ate with their servants. ‘‘How can you even think about that!’’ Conversely, for the upper castes and classes, it is meritorious to be charitable. They must give to the & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 23 Anthropology of Work Review poor and reap the merits of such good deeds. When India became independent, the leaders of the country called upon the big industrialists to help rebuild the country and many of them opened up huge charitable organizations, like schools, colleges, hospitals, and guest houses as well as established trusts for education of poor children, etc. But many of the companies run by these wealthy people still paid low wages to their low-rung employees. Even in the case of domestic help and smaller unorganized sectors most people think that wages should not be high, for it would make the worker feel that he/she is earning that much as a result of their own worth. The basic value or principle running through Indian society is that by paying the workers well, we shall raise their self esteem, make them feel proud of their achievement, and ultimately put them in competition to the upper castes and classes. On the other hand, if they are paid poorly and then given extra benefits or goods as charity, they will feel beholden to the giver, will maintain respectful attitude and continue to believe that they are poor and the rich are rich by divine ordinance. This is explicit in the statement recorded by Josiane Racine and Jean–Luc Racine (2002:191) of an untouchable agricultural laborer, Viramma, in a Tamil village in South India: God only left us these eyes and these hands to earn our living. By working hard at the Reddiar’s we’ve been able to lead our lives in the proper way. . . . Thanks to the Reddiar, thanks to his fortune – and it is a great one, especially in land – we have enough to eat without worrying. (Emphasis mine) Viramma does not praise her own hard work; she does not even connect it with the fact that she has food to eat. She thanks the Reddiar’s fortune, not herself, for her good luck, just to have enough to eat. Anything else the Reddiar may do for her is seen as his benevolence and not as his need. Thus the toiling millions in the fields and homes of the rich upper caste Indians feel that the rich are feeding them and the rich must retain their fortune to continue to feed them. The proper way is to keep serving the masters. With the passage of time, not everyone at the bottom thinks like that, but the fragmented nature of the caste system itself makes consorted action difficult if not impossible. Elsewhere I have discussed the concept of ritual giving, or dân, in the relationship of payments made to lower castes and labor (Channa 2005:58). Although Ambedkar did manage to consolidate some kind of an identity under the name Dalit, the reality of this movement has been very limited as a labor movement. The shared ideology of caste in Volume XXXI, Number 1 India still puts labor at the bottom of the list of social status. Most Dalits, including Ambedkar, have therefore sought higher positions in life by moving away from being manual laborers, getting educated, and striving for a position outside of the caste system. In my work on the Meghwals of Rajasthan, I have shown how they turned their traditional role of weaving as unpaid laborers to the upper castes in the village to a commercial enterprise and are now using their skills for the market, thereby improving both their economic and social position (Channa 1995). The Dalits have tried to project caste as a system of social disability rather than economic disability, thereby rejecting the Marxist framework of class. It is by such claims that they want positive discrimination to be operative outside of the limitations of economic status. But this has also situated the Dalit movement away from a labor movement. Combining this with the given reality of most lower-status laborers as low or untouchable castes, a consolidated labor movement has failed to take off in most of India; where it does appear in the Marxist-run states, the internal fragmenting on caste lines acts as a deterrent to positive political consolidation on the lines of class (see for example Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things). As recorded by almost all scholars who have done ethnographic studies of untouchable and low castes, there had been age-old enforcements on such castes to subject their bodies to humiliating inscriptions in terms of clothes, mannerisms, housing, food, etc. (Bama 2005). For many of them, these have become a way of self- identitification that inhibits them from asking for things that they feel they need not have. In fact needs have come to be redefined in terms of such imposed definitions. I had a woman helping me with the housework. In India, all except the very poor have some kind of help; even middle class office-going women like me, even if on a part-time basis.22 Every now and then my helper would ask me for a good saree and I would give her one as best as I could. But after some time I realized that she never wore any of those. ‘‘Why, Ambika?’’ I asked. ‘‘Why do I never see you wearing all the good sarees I give you?’’ ‘‘Oh Didi, how can I wear such good clothes! I keep them for the marriage gifts of my nieces and daughter,’’ she replied. At the same time rising aspirations and reworking of the worldview in which the realization exists that all humans are equal meets with both resistance and violence. Thus although many may feel that they deserve better few see a better future in being laborers or being in a job in the lower rung of job hierarchies. The raising of a minimum standard of living is not something that is envisaged at either the level of civil society or the state level. The poor feel they need to get & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 24 Anthropology of Work Review out of the labor class and become white-collar workers, and most upper classes – including political leaders – think that it is good to keep a section of people deprived so that they can keep playing their roles of benevolence. An almost universal response to my query to anyone as to why they do not like to pay fair wages to their servants was, ‘‘They will get spoiled.’’ Everyone would advise me, ‘‘If you feel bad about them give away things but do not raise their wages. They will then get spoiled.’’ As Punalekar (2001:238) points out, Dalit writers and intellectuals do recognize the negativity of paternalism professed by the upper castes/classes. ‘‘Pity, compassion and compromise derail one’s self worth and dignity. Dalits should stay away from such trappings, the Dalit writers’ advocate.’’ Conclusion No amount of legislation or calculations and legal strictures will change anything in India, then, unless society itself is subjected to a radical process of re-socialization. The privileged must realize that the poor and especially the laborers are human, too; they are not just sponges to absorb their sins (Parish 2002:179). The entire concept of an equivalence of work and wages and the fact that all human beings have some basic requirements in terms of human dignity does not exist for a majority of Indians. This is the ideological edge to address in a living wage movement. Unless such a transformation of values takes place, we cannot expect the successful implementation of a fair or living wages act. It is something that will remain on paper as it has been lying for so many decades. Notes 1 ‘‘To break caste is to cut oneself off from one’s group, which means from one’s family, one’s friends and from all those who live exactly as one does one self’’ (Zinkin 1962:8). However in contemporary India although such adherence to the cultural values of caste may be diluted, especially in terms of lifestyle, in terms of marriage and kinship and group identity caste is still most prominent, as can be seen in matrimonial advertisements in leading newspapers of the country where people are still looking for prospective partners largely within one’s own caste group, or ‘‘jati.’’ More importantly the bottom layer of Indian society still comprises predominantly of people of lower castes. Thus there is a caste/class homologous relationship that can be supported by factual evidence (Deshpande 2003). 2 ‘‘[O]n those rare occasions when a woman performs waged ‘‘male’’ labor, she is not paid a male work-wage Volume XXXI, Number 1 (Rs.10). Instead, though she has done a man’s job, she gets a woman’s daily work-wage (Rs.4). Thus, when Bathma, a strong young woman of about twenty-five did a ‘‘male’’ digging job with the large hoe one day, she was paid only Rs. 4, not Rs. 10. But she was not aggrieved. When my assistant and I asked her what she thought about it, she simply said that she had known from the first that she would not be paid a man’s wage. So, even for waged ‘‘male’’ work, a woman is paid less than a man, and she accepts this as normal.’’ 3 The term untouchables refers to the practice of physically keeping distance from the lowest categories in the hierarchical Indian caste system. These are those who perform tasks deemed impure within the ideology of caste. The term ‘‘Dalit’’ refers to a political category and means ‘‘oppressed’’ or quite literally ‘‘crushed.’’ Dalit is a self-designation that also tries to unite all categories of persons suffering from systemic exclusion in Indian society. It was coined by political leaders from the marginal groups in order to forge an inclusive political identity of all such people. The term Scheduled Caste (and Scheduled Tribes) refers to those people who were put into a government schedule for the purposes of positive discrimination or similar political and legal action such as the Prevention of Atrocities on Scheduled Castes and Tribes Act. The relationship between the three, though often taken as synonymous is not uncomplicated and is beyond the scope of this paper. 4 The Indian state is based on the British Parliamentary model where the prime minister is the head of the Lok Sabha (House of Commons) and the president is the head of the Rajya Sabha (House of Lords). The difference is that the president is replacing the hereditary nobility as a nominated head and as symbol of the Indian nation, while the prime minister is chosen out of elected representatives and is the effective, decision-making head of state. It is the prime minister who provides ideological leadership to the country. 5 As per the traditional caste system the lower castes were prohibited from going to school or even learning to read and write. Only the men of the upper caste/class availed of British education when it was made available to them. Some very few elite women were also educated but very few lower castes, men or women. 6 Untouchability refers to a feature almost unique to the caste system where some people are considered so impure that their touch itself is polluting. The system like most others in India is highly complex and is manifested in a myriad of different practices, often localized. But the common theme is that such people are prevented from inter-dining, sharing food and utensils, and excluded from all social and ritual occasions involving the upper castes. 7 The Indian National Congress was initially founded by a British administrator, Allan Octavian Hume, who was supported by another British administrator in India, William Wedderburn. When the Indians took over the Congress as a vehicle to fight British Imperialism they retained the secular and western values inherent in this organization as opposed to more grassroots Indian political parties like the & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 25 Anthropology of Work Review Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) founded by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, an out and out Hindu Indian Nationalist. But in actual terms the Congress was by virtue of its uppercaste leaders a mostly Hindu organization too, and the Hindu morality was used by them as a tool to fight western oppression (see Partha Chatterjee 1993). 8 India has the reputation for having people of different religion and social status as well as high educational achievements among its top leaders, such as the eminent philosopher Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishan (former president), the nuclear physicist Dr. Abdul Kalam (former president) and the present prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, an eminent economist of world repute. 9 Although a majority of the lower castes were deprived of education, some reformist upper caste and rich people like the Maharaja of Mysore sponsored brilliant and deserving Dalit children, like Ambedkar, to pursue higher studies. It must also be mentioned that the leaders of the Dalit movement, like Jyotiba Phule and Periyar, laid a great deal of emphasis upon modern education as a means to improve the position of the weaker sections of society (Omvedt 1993:99). Jyotiba Phule, of Marashtra, one of the most prominent leaders of the Dalit movement, described the scientific knowledge imparted through colonial rule as ‘‘vidya’’ as opposed to the Brahmanical teachings of Hinduism, ‘‘Shashtra.’’ Thus the Dalits also preferred to emulate the western lifestyle. For example, unlike all other Hindu upper-caste Nationalist leaders, wearing Indian dress, Ambedkar is always seen (and depicted) in a western-style suit and tie. 10 Shashtras was the knowledge contained in the Sanskrit texts, especially the Vedas. Only Brahmins could read the Vedas and impart the knowledge to the other high castes like the Kshatriyas and the Vaishyas. The Shudras and untouchables were kept out of this Sanskritic knowledge. This is what Jyotiba Phule had meant when he encouraged the lower castes to go for Vidya (western or scientific knowledge) as opposed to Shastras, the knowledge of the Brahmins. 11 Mendelsohn and Vicziany (1998:33) have shown with the help of facts and figures that although there are poor among the Brahmins and upper castes, the majority of poor, rural landless and urban poor are untouchables. ‘‘We can assume that Untouchables are still disproportionately represented among the poor (measured by calorie intake). . . . Those Untouchables who are not ‘poor’ are still likely to be found in the ‘Low’ rather than one of the higher categories.’’ These categories are taken from Rao and Natarajan (1994:4–5). 12 ‘‘The process of selection also meant a process of exclusion in the formation of the new national identity . . . Firstly it was clearly a new ‘Hindu’ identity . . . further a specifically Aryan identity . . . in Bengal . . . led to a simple dichotomization of the population into high castes comprising Aryan, and laboring groups comprising unAryan’’ (Chakravorty 1990:50). 13 India is a federal democracy with 29 states that divide the nation regionally, linguistically, and culturally. All central government acts are implemented regionally and often Volume XXXI, Number 1 with regional variations. The Minimum Wages Act, 1948, says, ‘‘Till such time a national wage is feasible, it would be desirable to have regional minimum wages in regard to which the Central Government may lay down the guidelines. The Minimum Wages should be revised at regular periodicity and should be linked with rise in the cost of living.’’ Accordingly, the government issued guidelines in July 1987 for setting up of Regional Minimum Wages Advisory Committees. These committees, renamed subsequently as Regional Labour Ministers’ Conference, made a number of recommendations which include reduction in disparities in minimum wages in different states of a region, setting up of inter-state Coordination Council, consultation with neighboring states while fixing/revising minimum wages, etc. Steps taken to reduce disparities: Five Regional Committees There is disparity in rates of minimum wages in various regions of the country. This is due to differences in socioeconomic and agro-climatic conditions, prices of essential commodities, paying capacity, productivity, and local conditions influencing the wage rate. The regional disparity in minimum wages is also attributed to the fact that both the central and state governments are the appropriate government to fix, revise, and enforce minimum wages in scheduled employments in their respective jurisdictions under the act. To bring uniformity in the minimum wages of scheduled employments, the Union Government has requested the states to form regional committees. At present there are five Regional Minimum Wages Advisory Committees in the country, which are (Region States/UTs covered):  Eastern Region (6) West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands  North Eastern Region (8) Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim  Southern Region (6) Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, and Lakshadweep  Northern Region (8) Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu&Kashmir, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Chandigarh  Western Region (6) Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu National Floor Level Minimum Wage – In order to have a uniform wage structure and to reduce disparities. 14 CALCULATIONS REGARDING MINIMUM WAGES PER DAY FOR AGRICULTURAL WORKERS The current figure of poverty line (food of 2,400 calories in rural area) is Rs. 11,600 p.a. per capita. It is now being revised. A worker’s family consists of 3 consumption units. Therefore the breadwinner has to earn Rs. 11,6003 5 34,800/- to avoid hunger. This is to avoid falling below the poverty line. If we accept the Indian Labour Conference norms as approved by the Supreme Court in Workmen Vs. Raptakos Brett & Co. Ltd. And Standard Vacuum Refining Vs. the Workmen we have to add cost of cloth of 72 yd. (say @ Rs.10 per yd.), 20% & 2010 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. 26 Anthropology of Work Review 15 The Panchayat refers to the five village elders almost always of the dominant caste group who were traditionally seen as supreme authority, although the workings of the Panchayat were more democratic, involving consensus from most of the upper caste men. The Panch, five elders, were seen as God’s mouthpiece and any decision they took, even if after prolonged discussion, was taken as final and binding. with low castes, such as sweeping and washing clothes. For this reason girls from upper caste/class families often are not socialized to any kind of physical work, so most women cannot do even simple household tasks that may require them to climb or bend and lift heavy objects. One interesting fact is that women from respectable families are not to be seen in public doing any physical work. So no woman will be seen washing her car or the family car. If there is no help to do it then a male member of the household will do it. But even respectable men are not to be seen gardening, cutting grass, or fixing roofs. 16 One may look into the booklet, Work for All at a Living Wage: Towards an Employment Guarantee Act, Jan 2004. This booklet was prepared by the support group of the ‘‘Right to Food Campaign’’ for circulation at the World Social Forum (Mumbai 2004). It contains an article of Living Wage by Jean Drez, the famous economist. It can be found on the website www.rightoffood.com or by e-mail from right2food@yahoo.co.in. References Ambedkar, B.R. 1987. The Philosophy of Hinduism. In Writing and Speeches, Vol. 3. Babasaheb Ambedkar Dr. and Vasant Moon, eds. Bombay: Education Department, Government of Maharashtra. for fuel, lighting, and miscellaneous items and 25% on children’s education, medicare, marriage, old age etc. The figure would then be Rs. 51,180/- p.a. 17 The Panchayati Raj program is a program of decentralized governance making use of the concept of the villagelevel council of elders (panchayats); except that the panchayats recognized by the state are democratically elected according to procedures laid down by the state. 18 A newspaper report states, under the headline ‘‘PM, Sonia admit lapses in NREGA’’ that, ‘‘The prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, today admitted that there had been ‘lapses’ in the rural employment guarantee scheme, including the payment of wages.’’ The Statesman, 3rd February, 2010 (p.5). 19 THE CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION REGUALTION) ACT, 1986 (Act No. 61 of 1986) [23rd December, 1986] AND 20 Although free government hospitals are available in India. the very fact of hospitalization meant loss of daily wages. Also the wife had to attend to him in the hospital and was not able to work either. The health care provided at these hospitals is often poor although prognosis is usually good. There are good doctors but poor hygiene and facilities like beds and nursing care are wanting. Quite often the patient’s attendants are expected to do such tasks as giving bedpans, giving medicines, and feeding and bathing the patient that should normally be done by paramedics. This is especially true if they are poor and low status. 21 One Crore is a 100 lakh where 1 lakh is a hundred thousand. 22 The reason for this is complex. First, there are many poor persons who need some kind of job to survive and working in a household as hired help is seen a soft option for those who do not want to work in hard labor or those who have no specific skills. Also most of these workers are women who see working for another household for money as only an extension of the work that they do in their own homes. 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