Attending the ILO AP RM: Father Chetan, NDWF, India

For me, it was the first time to attend, so it was a learning process, which helps us understand the issues better. We also witness the continental dynamics and issues that are being debatted, like labour migration, where they go deeper into recruitment issues, social protection in hosting and sending countries etc. Even though no binding instrument comes out of it, I do feel some government delegates will take certain issues back to their national level and initiate some efforts. India in my perspective will not be among these, as their delegation seemed to simply pretend all is going well, the government is doing so much and there are no major problems. This is regrettable. I also appreciated better the importance of the issue of Freedom of Association, which I understand now is a vital prerequisite for social dialogue and collective bargaining.


The opening remarks made by Felix Anthony as Vice-Chair of the ILO AP RM stood out. He was not afraid to point out the specific issues on the ground which were not mentioned in the DG’s report, and this was very strong. He also drew attention to the recent efforts the Indian government is making to dilute the role of trade unions in ensuring the labours’ rights, so these are very relevant and fit within his mandate as workers’ representative. These attempts from the India gvt were also mentioned during the interventions from the representative from the Workers’ Delegate from India, M Singh. Among the issues discussed, I found safe migration the most relevant, as it is a pressing matter for many of our countries. Ramesh Badal from Nepal stated it clearly: our youth is trained and send away, where they work in difficult situations, but the remittance they send back is their hard earned money, and so sending countries should not see these as a gift, but take up their responsibility.
If I could have made an intervention, I would insisted on the decent living wage concept, which I think is the need of the hour. After 100 year existence of the ILO, this is still lacking and so it needs to be stressed more, until the ILO really brings this forward.