Commentary: India’s 12-hour workday is the flawed type of capitalism | USAEMALL.com

SQUEEZING MORE HOURS OUT OF WORKERS

Besides, there is a difference between what’s written in the statutes and what’s actually enforced. 

Even when eight-hour shifts were the maximum permissible, textile factories in Surat in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat routinely extracted 12 hours of work or more. That went unnoticed until the pandemic snatched away the lifeline – and sent millions of jobless blue-collar workers, unable to afford food or rent, on arduous treks to their villages hundreds of miles away. Many died on the way.

The shadow of that scarring is visible in the revamped labour code. It acknowledges that the state needs to know more about internal migrants and help them with portable access to ration shops and social security.

Among other welcome features of the new laws, it’s now mandatory for employers to give out appointment letters. The principal employer will be responsible for any unpaid wages of contract labour. Assurance of health and life insurance to gig workers reflects a more realistic reassessment of a digitised urban economy. 

Yet it’s also important to moderate expectations from what the government is describing as a “historic reform.” To have 29 different labour laws consolidated into four may raise manufacturers’ hopes, but will they get a breather from harassment? 

The notorious “inspector raj” will latch on to other infractions to first shut down factories – and then demand bribes for reopening them. Likewise, while it’s a progressive idea to let women work night shifts in factories, will employers put in place the safeguards that the new laws require of them?

India’s finance-obsessed capitalists want to deflect attention from their own failures to invest in new technologies and develop new markets. Now that advances in AI have sped up the innovation cycle, and Trump is squeezing India on trade, they want to extract more juice out of labour. 

Ultimately, though, no country is going to get rich in the 21st century by taking away more hours of the day from working-class families. India is no exception.