SPEECH OF SHRI MUNI LALL, HON’BLE MINISTER OF STATE FOR LABOUR, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, DURING THE PLENARY SESSION OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE – 2002 IN GENEVA 

Mr. Chairman, 

Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, 

1.         It is my privilege to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your unanimous election as the President of the 90th Session of the International Labour Conference.  I deem it an honour to address the distinguished participants, present here today.  

2.         I would also take this opportunity to congratulate the DG and his Office for the very exhaustive report on ILO’s programme implementation during 2000-01.  It is heartening to observe that India figures prominently in the works programme during the period. 

3.         I propose to focus my intervention on two of  major issues that have been included in the agenda of this session, namely, ‘Child Labour’ and ‘Decent Work and the Informal Economy’.  

4.         I congratulate the DG and his team for bringing out an excellent Global Report on ‘Child Labour’.  The extent of its worst forms identified in the Report is both revealing and alarming.  

5.         Mr. Chairman, India is home to the world’s largest population of children.  As a nation, we have always followed a proactive policy in the matter of elimination of child labour.  The very clear constitutional and statutory provisions combined with a range of development measures have been the cornerstones of our efforts to eliminate child labour.  The strategy of Government of India has been to eliminate child labour sequentially beginning with the most hazardous forms and subsequently moving towards the less hazardous forms.  

6.         The Government of India have on their part set aside approximately US$ 50 million in the last plan period 1997-2002.  During the current Plan, we propose to double this allocation.  

7.         The global report has rightly mentioned that poverty and child labour are closely interlinked.  Large population sizes along with slow demographic change in the developing countries is also making the problem formidable.  The Government is, therefore, addressing the issue through the implementation of its national poverty eradication programmes and has had reasonable success over the years in reducing the number of people below the poverty line.  We think that with eradication of poverty and a simultaneous sustained effort at providing primary education to the children, child labour could be tackled on two fronts successfully.  

8.         The Government of India have conveyed the details of this strategy in the recently held United Nations General Assembly Session on Children.  

9.         I am also proud to state that the Parliament has passed the Constitution (93rd amendment) Bill in May, 2002 to make education for all children in the age group 6-14 years a Fundamental Right.  

10.       Mr. Chairman, I would now like to touch upon the issue of Decent Work and The Informal Economy.  The excellent study report reflects the range of issues.  The selection of this subject could not have come a day sooner because of the challenges this sector is facing in the context of globalisation and its after effects.  

11.       In the developing countries, particularly, globalisation and liberalisation would also result in casualisation of workers, thus adding further to the already large workforce in the informal sector.  For countries like India, which have more than 90 percent of their work force in the informal sector, we need to look at the strengths of the informal sector and the prevailing social and economic conditions.  This situation would be vastly different from that in the developed and industrialised countries. 

12.       We look to developed countries to assist in the immense task of upgrading the social infrastructure and skill upgradation of work force in the developing countries.  This subject matter should not be seen in the mono perspective of the rights issue alone; as above all, the foremost need of the unemployed would be work itself.  

13.       Quality jobs may not immediately be in the offing in large numbers.  Developing countries would, therefore, need to continue with a “jobs first” approach.  Disproportionate importance to one or the other strategic objective could take away the resilience and flexibility which the informal sector provides as the source of employment and could well be counter productive for desperate job seekers.  

14.       In this connection, I recall the fruitful and unanimous conclusions reach in the 13th Asian Regional Meeting in Bangkok that in order to attain decent work, the first imperative is to ensure employment to everyone and it is only after this that measures conforming to decent work conditions would be possible.  

15.       India has always believed in the dignity of labour which our great saints like Ravi Das and Kabir Das have taught us.  We deprecate those conditions which force men to do work below their dignity.  We see decent work in creating decent conditions every where.  

16.       I hope that this session of the ILC and the deliberations in it will highlight the potential for action in the important areas we have chosen for debate and bring fresh insights into the complex issues and problems for the ultimate betterment of the toiling masses all over the world.  

            Thank you

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