This lecture will be addressing an extremely relevant subject affecting almost all employed people. In these trying times of the Covid-19 lockdown, everyone is engulfed by a fear of economic insecurity, as thousands are losing their jobs in sectors like media, IT, manufacturing as well as labourers everywhere. Wages are not being paid and employees and workers are being made to feel the fear of losing their jobs.
Our Constitution provides for the Right against Exploitation in one of the Fundamental Rights under Articles 23 and 24. These rights have been realised through Directive Principles of State Policies that provide for guidelines and principles based on which the state should govern as well as several statutory laws like
– Working Journalists Act,
– Industrial Disputes Act,
– Minimum Wages Act,
– Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act,
– Factories Act,
– Employees Compensation Act,
– Mines Act,
– Building and Construction Workers Act,
– Maternity Benefit Act,
– Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act,
– Trade Unions Act and several others.
We believe that the knowledge of these fundamental rights and laws should not be limited to lawyers, government officials and activists, but should be accessible to the common citizen as well, especially in the middle of a severe economic crisis, that has forced millions of migrant labourers into starvation and walking barefoot for thousands of kilometres from cities to their hometowns. This is a time when we citizens need to know and understand our rights and responsibilities, and respond in ways that we uphold the Constitution.