-The Hindu On the contrary, scrapping labour laws will only reduce wages, lower earnings and reduce consumer demand Following the adage, “never waste a crisis”, the government of Uttar Pradesh, last week, introduced an ordinance that has scrapped most labour laws for three years — ostensibly for creating jobs and for attracting factories exiting China following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. These laws deal with the occupational safety, health and working...

-Firstpost.com One of the most telling human stories to result from the COVID-19 outbreak and the resulting nationwide lockdown is that of stranded migrant workers. But theirs isn't a new story; it's taken a pandemic for urban India to take note of an issue that has remained an unseen aspect of the country's economy for much of its contemporary history. P Sainath, founder of People's Archive of Rural India (PARI) and...

-NDTV "Marenge toh gaon mein hi marenge" said a determined Ramesh as he walked down a highway in Gurgaon in late March with his wife and two small children. The family had just set off for their village, 450 km away in Madhya Pradesh because they did not think they would survive a 21-day lockdown with no source of income. 45 days, two extensions, a disposed-of petition on wage payment for...

-The Indian Express Ever since the lockdown was enforced on March 25, there has been ever-increasing uncertainty about the welfare, if not the basic survival, of the vulnerable sections of the society, many of whom depend on daily wages for their sustenance. India witnessed a tragic irony last week when 16 migrants, part of a group of 20 headed towards their villages in Madhya Pradesh and who were hoping to board a...

-TheWire.in While most of the laws may not be strictly enforced, does that justify doing away with them completely? In the last week, several important labour laws, meant to safeguard the welfare of the workers and ensure industrial safety, have been “suspended” for a few years in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Although the orders put out by each state government have their own tweaks and variations, these decisions collectively come with...