 Hello and welcome to NewsClick and People Dispatch. On this occasion of May day, we are joined by K. Hemlata, the President of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions or C2 for short. We will be talking to her about the condition of workers in India during this COVID-19 lockdown and the crucial role being played by them. Thank you for joining us today. So can you first talk about healthcare workers who are rightly being called the frontline warriors during this battle? Can you tell us about, particularly about the role being played by care workers such as Asha workers, Anganwadi workers, nurses, midwives, etc. And sort of treatment they are getting both at the hands of the government and the people. Yeah, the Asha workers and the Anganwadi workers, they are also along with the doctors and nurses, they are also part of the frontline workers. And they are asked to go house to house and identify the people and provide them advice and other things. So along with the nurses, they are going to different houses, they are conducting a survey. And Asha workers, though the Anganwadi workers are actually not directly under the Ministry of Health, they are working under the Ministry of Women and Child Development. But because they have close contact with the people, they are also part of the team and they are also going house to house. And the main problem is that they are not provided with any protective equipment, either gloves or mask or anything. That is one area where they are exposed to risk. This is not part of their work, but they are doing this because they are closely related to the people, particularly in the villages. But they are not having any additional remuneration. As it is, the Ashas are not provided with any wages. They are only called social health activists and they are provided with some incentive, which is very low. And now they have additional work and they are not paid for that. That is one issue. Second, they don't have any protective gear. That is the second one. And third, in many places, they are being beaten up by the people. In some places, they think people think that they have come to conduct the CAA survey. And some places, they are because of this stigmatization and all these things, particularly in the minority areas. They don't want to give the information. They don't want people to go there. Though now under this scheme, the government has announced that Ashas also will be provided this 50 lakh insurance. Actually, it is when they die, their family will get. But even that is not there for the Anganwadi workers. So Anganwadi workers are also part of the team. They are also subject to all these difficulties. They also don't have any additional remuneration for this extra work. It is not part of their routine work. And they are also exposed to the risk and they are also not provided with any protective equipment, nor with this insurance. So these are the main issues that these health workers face to be. And if we talk about other sectors, there are also workers active in many other sectors who are not being talked about as much. So can you tell us more about them? They are also working despite all these concerns. They haven't stopped their work. They are the ones sustaining us right now. Can you tell us more about the crucial role being played by the working class during this lockdown? So in addition to the health workers, that is the nurses or the doctors or the Asha Anganwadi workers, there are various other workers who are also indirectly related, who are working in the particular circumstances like the transport workers, the goods transport workers, the loading and unloading workers and also the railway trackmen. Recently we came across a complaint where the railway ministry is trying to fast track. Generally what they do when the request of the tracks etc., the trackmen, they do that. They are done in between some time when the trains don't pass. But now because the trains are not running, they want to fast track that and they are not provided any means they are not even under the consideration. There is no scope of social distancing. All of them have to together work and they are not provided with any protective care. So these are and many places they are finding difficulty to even attend the work because they are villages. They come from nearby villages. In the villages they have fast resolutions and they are saying that you can't go to work. If you go work, now the government has issued guidelines that when a particular sector is working, then the employer has to provide accommodation to the workers, their food etc. But even the railways is not providing for their own trackmen. So there are many other sectors where workers are compelled to work, the municipal workers, the sanitation workers. So even the bank employees, the bank employees are also working, the banks are functioning. And because of the jandham accounts etc., there is a lot of crowd, particularly in the beginning of the month. But the bank employees are also not provided with any protective care or anything. So the various other sectors, the employees and the workers, they are also working. But the government is not at all taking care of them. In addition to the migrant workers, which has come out as a very big problem, the government guidelines which were issued immediately after the lockdown, they say that the employers should not retrain the workers including the contract workers and casual workers. Their wages should be paid and those who are in leave, they also should be treated. Those who have taken leave before and could not join because of the lockdown, they also should be considered as attending the work and they should be paid wages. But nowhere is this being implemented in very few places including the public sector undertakings. Like the border road organization, we have been receiving a lot of complaints that they are retrenching workers who have been working for decades and similarly in the private sector. Many workers, they are not being paid and not only the small and medium enterprises, even in the big IT sector, we have found that women, pregnant women, they are being retrenched. Many employees have been retrenched. We have been receiving complaints for a lot of companies based on, based in Pune, based in Calcutta, based in Chennai, Gurgaon, etc. IT companies including multinationals, they have retrenched their employees and they are also not paying wages. So this is organized, an organized public sector and we have been demanding. It is very difficult for the small and medium enterprises to pay wages because they are so small and they can't pay full wages. So we have been demanding that the government should help them. The small enterprises in many advanced countries also, the governments are paying the wages. So the government should at least pay the wages for the other workers in these enterprises. So in general, the package that the government has given, which is less than 1%, 0.8% and even out of that there are certain accounts like the Mandrega workers wages which have been already accounted for in the budget. So if we remove those things, it comes to hardly 84 or 94,000 crores. So this is very meagre. So we have been demanding that particularly the government has to take care of the migrant workers. They have to provide them the wages and in addition all the non-tax paying, non-income tax paying people in the country. There should be cash transfer across 7500. So that's one foot and the other expenditures they can meet. And once the COVID is over, you need the workforce, people who have to work. Unless the people are there to work, they are subject to starvation and malnutrition which is already very serious in our country, then how the economy will run? Yeah, and we also see that this far right Nayan Ramodi government in India is trying to take advantage of a working class which is vulnerable right now by attacking their rights such as the 8 hour work day. So can you tell us more about that? One, the government is reportedly contemplating to increase the working hours. Mayday particularly, we all know that it is remembered for the fight for 8 hours work. And that through lot of sacrifices the working class has achieved. But 134 years after that, today we find that governments are trying to increase the working. We are not talking about the employers illegally making the workers work 12 days. It is the government which is trying to legalize the illegal 12 hours work day. And in states like Gujarat, BJP, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, they have already issued notifications that 12 hours work will be workers have to work for 12 hours without any overtime payment. That is one aspect. And the second is the codification. Even before that the government has been trying to codify the labor laws. Already the board on wages bill has been passed. Now there are three core spending bills. One is industrial relations, second on social security and third on occupational health safety and working conditions. So even there also the government was trying to increase the working hours. And the industrial relations quote, if that is passed, it will be almost impossible for the workers to organize into trade unions. It will be almost impossible to go on a legal strike. The right to organize, the right to go on strike of the workers will be totally removed. And the government wants to get them through either an ordinance or through executive order. Now because they are pending with the parliamentary standing committee, the industrial relations, the parliamentary standing committee's observation on the industrial relations quote has been submitted. But the others are pending. Before that we receive reports that they are trying to push them through executive orders or ordinances. That means that taking advantage of this condition where the entire country is under lockdown, where workers cannot mobilize, they cannot protest etc. And that condition is taken advantage by the government to satisfy the demands of the employers. The employers have demanded the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce. They have demanded that the union should be banned. Formation of union should be banned for one year. They should be prohibited. Union should be prohibited for one year. And similarly the hire and fire. That was the demand of the employer. So all these things the government want to do under this situation where the people are suffering, people are losing jobs, people have no income. Instead of addressing the genuine situation of the people, their demands, the government wants to satisfy the employers and attack the rights of the workers. And of course the unemployment is rapidly increasing and the economy is facing a deep crisis. And the Modi government, when many other governments across the world, the response to this situation is that they are planning on opening up certain sectors and easing lockdown restrictions. So what is C2's response to this move? See, lockdown, whether a country-wide lockdown is necessary or not, that also means an issue. Which is very slow, unanimity. Lockdown, if it is where the hotspots or where to contain the hotspots, this lockdown is not a cure. It is only trying to limit the spread of the disease. Main thing is you have to test. The testing, though it has been increased, even today the testing is less. It is very low in our country. So test, then you identify, you trace and then you contain them. So that has to be the procedure. But that is not being followed. So even if certain sectors are opened up, then the workers will have at least some jobs, some income. So that will even start the economy again. So that has to be considered properly. Lockdown, maybe it cannot be lifted entirely throughout the country. But where the cases are very low, where it is already contained, that way in a phased manner it can be removed. Gradually it can be, lockdown can be eased. So that is, we agree for that. But at the same time, the people's health cannot be sacrificed. And now what we say, you were talking about the liberalization. Today, who are the people actually fighting the coronavirus? It is the public sector, hospitals. Today also there was a report in the media and the newspapers that today our two thirds of beds are with the private sector in our country. Because under neoliberal globalization, the public spending, the government spending on health has come down drastically. And 80% of the ventilators are with the private sector, private hospitals. 80% ventilators, two thirds of beds are with the private sector. And they are providing only 10% of, addressing the 10% of COVID patients. And not only the COVID patients, even for the non-COVID care also they are not providing because they are safely locking themselves up. Because they don't want to take the risk. So that is the time. What we need today is that the government has to spend more on public health. The government has to, in some countries like Spain, they have taken over the private hospitals also in this situation. And what we see today in the USA, which is the most powerful country in the world, there almost one third of the cases are in the USA. Of the total global cases, one third are in the USA. And one fourth, deaths are in the USA. A country which is having so many missiles, submarines and spending so much on military. Why can't it spend on its own, the health of its own people? So it is the policy. So the system, the policies are totally exposed. So in this system under neoliberalization, people's health is not first, profits are first. So in the coming days, what we feel is that the government needs to spend more on public health. Health should not be a privilege. It should be treated as a right of the people, as a responsibility of the government. And I think from what we can all estimate, from what it seems that the condition is not going to get better anytime soon. And it is the working class, which is going to keep suffering the most. So in this situation, what protest actions have been organized by C2? What are they planning to do in the future? And what are the demands that are being put forward? Actually, we have already started. On 21st April, we had an all India protest team. The demand is one, at that time this demand has come up. The government is thinking of increasing the working hours. So that was one of the major demands. But in addition to that, this cash transfer of 7,500, no retrenchment, payment of wages, and then protective equipment, gloves, masks, etc., to the frontline health workers and all the needy, taking care of the migrant workers, providing them shelter, providing them food, etc. All these were the major demands. The slogan was, Bhashan nahi reishan sayi. Bhashan nahi vetan sayi, Bhashan nahi arthik sahaita sayi. For the peasants, it is time for the harvest. They don't have money for the harvesting. They don't have money for transfer of their products to the cities, transport, etc. So with these demands, we organized a protest demonstration all over the country, like maintaining physical distance and maintaining all the guidelines under lockdown. People stand with the placards showing these demands and the flags in their hands. And at 10.30 in their own houses, along with their family members, or wherever possible, the union offices or the SEITU offices like that, they'll ask them to stand and raise their voice. Because till now they have been hearing a lot of Bhashan, a lot of advices, they have practiced that. Now it is time that their voices need to be heard. And for 10 minutes they have given slogan. And the response was beyond our expectation. In all the 22 states in the country, except of course where we have our present CITU, in Trikura the government did not allow the threatened of vindictive actions, etc. But everywhere, including Jammu and Kashmir, to all the states, around 55,000 centers this was held and in more than 400 districts, out of the 718 districts in the country, this program was held in 408 districts in the country, more than 55,000 places and approximately 5 lakh people have participated. This was means beyond totally our expectation, within a short notice. Through social media, through telephone, they have communicated and they have responded. And again on media, we said that with this, no wage cuts, no retrenchment, no 12-hour works, tax the rich, tax the super rich and save the poor. Today the super rich, even the wealth tax was removed in 2016-17 Union budget by the BJP government. So even if you restore the wealth tax, if you tax the 953 people who are billionaires, whose minimum wealth is more than 5000 crores, even you tax these people, the government can definitely allot around 10% of the GDP for the meeting this situation. It is not impossible. Instead of doing that, the government is cutting on the DA of the central government employees, they are withholding the dearness allowance increase, the dearness allowance up to 2021-July. They are asking the government employees to pay, including the retirees, pensioners also. So the government is pushing the entire burden on the common people, not the super rich and the IRS officers who have suggested that they should tax the rich, the super rich and action has been taken against them, three of their senior leaders of the IRS association, they have been charged, treated including their general secretary. So this is the attitude of the government. So on May Day also we have decided with these slogans we will similarly organize in a wider scale and in the coming days also we have to think about, we can't go on keeping silent when the government goes on attacking the workers and their rights. So despite the lockdown, we have evolved measures and how to express our people's anxieties and voice their demands and in the coming days definitely we have to unite. In the 21st program we have appealed to the Kisan Sabha, to the Agricultural Workers Union women and so many other sections, students, youth, etc. and everybody responded. So this time also the call has been given along with the other trade unions, not only CITU, AITUC, INTUC, HMS and the other trade unions also have joined together in giving this call of protest on May Day. Their own flags, they will carry their own flags and these demands, common demands and in their offices and houses maintaining the physical distancing, not the social distancing. We want social unity and not the social distancing. So maintaining physical distancing, unitedly voicing our demands, we have decided to raise our protest. Thank you for joining us today and that's all the time we have. Keep watching NewsClick and People's Social.