NEW NORMAL, NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT - ANRSP calls for urgent responses to COVID-19 pandemic in the world of work

 The COVID-19 pandemic has passed 13 million, killing over 570.000 people worldwide. Every day, the number of new cases set another daily record. Many health experts say the actual number of cases around the world may be much more than the reported numbers. Vaccines can take at least a year to develop before they are proved to be safe and effective. The pandemic is taking a huge toll on health, economy and social life around the world.

Epidemiological characteristic of COVID-19 showed that virus infections tend to be more severe for older peoples and those with pre-existing health conditions, which unfortunately occur more frequently in disadvantaged groups, groups of people who have less or no access to health care, or more likely to live and work in conditions that increase the risk of infection. The policies to contain it could even widen pre-existing inequalities.

Countries have adopted various forms of policies and measures to “flatten the curve”, including a range of public health and social measures, movement restrictions, closure of schools and businesses, restriction on social-religious-sports-entertainment activities, quarantine in specific geographic areas and international travel restrictions. With school closures in over 190 countries, children’s education -especially for the girls- is at risk and potentially increases child labour. As education and training have been disrupted, young people have greater obstacles for their transition from school to work, their start-up business have seen collapses, and a current wave of job losses have hampered employment opportunities and earning, forcing more than one in six people aged under 29 to stop working. Anxiety or depression among young generation led many to dub them the ‘lock down generation’.

Partnership initated with SEWA Kerala in India

Today WSM partnered with SEWA Kerala with Ms Sonia George for a short 6 month pilot project "Undertaking groundwork for the furtherance of organising and developing social security coverage for women workers in the informal sector". With activities like research, advocacy, awareness raising and training, we hope to have as outcomes:

1. A better understanding of a social security floor for women workers in the informal sector towards policy discussions
2. Mapping of areas/sectors in which internal migration of women is high in Kerala
3. A study of the possible mechanisms for the portability of PDS for internal migrant workers
4. Organising migrant workers through source and destination linkages.

SEWA and the women in the informal sector 

SEWA is a union of women in the informal sector in existence since 1972. This union has been expanding in several states of India and presently covers 17 states. Of the present workforce in India, 93% are in the informal sector and half of these are women who are both vulnerable and, in several ways, invisible. There are no unions that focus on this sector of women who are not only vulnerable but also relegated to a back seat in most union activity in the country. SEWA has tried to make the issues of these women workers visible. The issue of social security cover for such women workers is an area that SEWA would like to focus on in the future.

And in Kerala?

Kerala is one of the older states where SEWA is established. The membership of Kerala is made up of women workers from trades like domestic workers, street vendors, fish vendors, home based workers of different kinds, reed workers and some agricultural workers, SEWA Kerala has been responsible for the sector of domestic workers within the larger SEWA national union. 

SEWA Kerala has around 15.000 members that are domestic workers and 2.000 women street vendors, as well as 3.000 fish workers, which also often double as street vendors. SEWA empowers them to increase their livelihood and food security, by organising them, strengthening their capacities to bargain and facilitating access to seed money.  

Kerala is also a state that receives a lot of women workers coming from other states, a large number of whom are invisible as they work as live in domestic workers where access to social security schemes is complicated for them, because of lack of Kerala documents.

SEWA and domestic workers

As part of this work, SEWA Kerala has been coordinating the National Platform for Domestic Workers, a platform made up of different unions around the country that work with the domestic workers. While focusing on securing a comprehensive legislation for domestic workers in India, the Platform has also been engaging with the labour reforms that the Central Government is seeking to introduce. One of the main issues in the reform is the manner in which the informal workers will have access to social security. While the present draft of the reform bill is to render social security as a welfare measure and that too with minimal coverage, the effort is to work towards securing social security as a right. This is an area in which a large awareness and understanding has to be built.