On March 20 this year, a cycle rally led by veteran activist and working president of the Unorganised Sector Workers, set off from Mahad in Maharashtra to Delhi, 78 years after Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar launched his Pani Mukti Andolan from this town. Their objective: to submit a petition signed by lakhs of workers all over the country to parliament demanding recognition and justice for workers of the unorganized sector. 
Comprising 93 per cent of the workforce in this country and numbering at least 37 crores, a substantial number of whom are women, the unorganized sector contributes 65 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. It covers a wide range of occupations from agriculture, construction, handlooms & powerlooms, dyeing, fisheries, poultry & animal husbandry, plantations, coir, handicrafts, leather and tanning products, salt pans, small scale & cottage industries and a large number of home-based work in rural and urban areas.
Generations of neglect and indifference have consistently added to loss of dignity, misery and difficulties faced by workers in the unorganised sector. Also, the process of globalisation, liberalization, mechanization and displacements has led to invisible retrenchments, underemployment, poverty and increasing malnutrition. There is an urgent need for regulation of the unorganized sector and protection of workers.
Unlike the organized sector, there is no fixed employment relationship in the unorganized sector. Here, employment is contractual, most often on a sub-contract basis and is unregulated. Thus, to ensure security of employment and protection of workers, it is imperative to regulate employment in the unorganized sector.
A sizable section of workers are women, hence gender discrimination must be prevented while protection from sexual harassment at the workplace and maternity entitlements, childcare ensured.
Though labour laws such as the Minimum Wages Act, Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act etc., are sought to be applied to unorganized sector workers, they are not capable of being implemented due to the changing employer-employee relation, inadequacy of labour law administration and the lack of provisions to involve workers in the implementation or to protect them against victimization.
The regulation of employment must be entrusted to an autonomous body statutorily set up and consisting of representatives of the workers, government and the employers. National Campaign Committee for Unorganised Sector Workers headed by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer had been campaigning for a central legislation all over the country.
The petition to be submitted to parliament reiterates that, as producers of wealth, workers should be treated as equal partners and participants in the process of formulation and implementation of laws and schemes through tripartite bodies at various levels.
Besides, the petition also states that a separate law must be enacted for agricultural workers; legislation governing construction workers needs to be amended to protect all construction workers and that the law for unorganized sector workers should be a comprehensive piece of legislation governing, among other aspects, regulation of employment, fixation of piece rates, appropriate and adequate provisions for social security and safety, child care facilities, etc.
Instead of a single board and a single scheme, there must be provision in the law for the appropriate government to set up as many boards as are necessary for different groups of employments.
The law must prescribe a minimum three percentage of the GDP to be set apart for social security and this percentage must be raised every year until it is able to provide, say after ten years or so, a level of social security that is reasonable and satisfactory.
The petition also pointed out deficiencies in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, 2004 that was introduced in Parliament in December 2004 and seeks a reversal of policies of liberalization and mechanization and displacements.
