Dr. Parveen Kumar
A reminder of the persistent struggles and achievements of workers’ engaged in different sectors and contributing to the progress and development of nations; the first day of fifth month; every year is celebrated as International Workers’ Day or International Labour Day all across the globe. The day also reflects various social movements and demands of workers for better rights, decent wages, good working conditions and a fair treatment. Workers today have rights and cannot be discriminated on any basis. Unfortunately the condition of workers was quiet different from the present day. Unlike today’s eight hour working day, the working day in the past used to be as long as 10 to 16 hours. The working conditions were also very tough and inappropriate to work. Any shortening in the no. of hours was accompanied by the consequent cut in wages. Death and injury were common at many work places. This continued unabated despite the fact that the workers all across the globe are active contributors to pace and development of their nations.
In the late nineteenth century, the working class was in constant struggle to have an eight hour working day. As early as the 1860’s, working people agitated to shorten the workday without a cut in pay, but it wasn’t until the late 1880’s that organized labour was able to garner enough strength to declare the eight hour workday. This proclamation was without consent of employers, yet demanded by many of the working class. At this time, socialism was a new and attractive idea to working people, many of whom were drawn to its ideology of working class control over the production and distribution of all goods and services. Workers had seen first-hand that Capitalism benefited only their bosses, trading workers’ lives for profit. Thousands of men, women and children were dying needlessly every year in the workplace, with life expectancy as low as their early twenties in some industries, and little hope but death of rising out of their destitution.
Beginning in the late 19th century, as the trade union and labour movements grew, a variety of days were chosen by trade unionists as a day to celebrate labour. May 1 was chosen to be International Workers’ Day to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. In that year beginning on May 1, there was a general strike for the eight-hour workday. The 1904 Sixth Conference of the Second International, called on all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace. On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses across the United States walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration in history.
In Chicago, the epicenter for the 8-hour day agitators, 40,000 went out on strike with the anarchists in the forefront of the public’s eye. With their fiery speeches and revolutionary ideology of direct action, anarchists and anarchism became respected and embraced by the working people and despised by the capitalists. More and more workers continued to walk off their jobs until the numbers swelled to nearly 100,000, yet peace prevailed. It was not until two days later, May 3, 1886, that violence broke out at the McCormick Reaper Works between police and strikers. In 1887, Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday. By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty US states officially celebrated Labour Day. Thus by 1887 in North America, Labour Day was an established, official holiday but in September, not on 1 May. In 1889, a meeting in Paris was held by the first congress of the Second International, following a proposal by Raymond Lavigne that called for international demonstrations on the 1890 anniversary of the Chicago protests. May Day was formally recognized as an annual event at the International’s second congress in 1891. May Day is an official holiday in 66 countries and unofficially celebrated in many more, but rarely is it recognized in this country where it began.
Agriculture sector too employs a larger share of workforce. The Economic Survey 2023-24 revealed that agriculture sector still remains the leader in employment. It still employs 44.6% of the work force. This workforce besides being used as bonded labourers by big landlords is also subjected to various types of miseries. While workers themselves work on the farms of landlords, their wives and other family members have to work as domestic servants in the houses of their landlords. They are mostly at a disadvantage when the terms and conditions of farming are decided by farmers and landlords. Besides natural phenomenon like climate change is already having serious impacts on the safety and health of the large workers in all regions of the world. Workers are among those most exposed to climate change hazards yet frequently have no choice but to continue working, even if conditions are dangerous. Globally, Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) protections have struggled to keep up with the evolving risks from climate change, resulting in worker mortality and morbidity.
The farming community is a class of agriculture workers that work in farms and is are not confined to a particular gender. If we analyze the data, we see that in 2001, of the 100 cultivators in India 67.1 were male and 32.9 were female and within a decade in 2011 the male went up to 69.7 and female came down to 30.3. Similarly of 100 agricultural labourers in India in 2001, 53.7 were male and 46.3 were female and a decade later in 2011 the number was 57.3 for males and 42.7 for females. The agriculture workers have been in the forefront in ensuring food and nutritional security to all of use. Despite all this, there are frequent reports of the agriculture workers being harassed by landlords and owing to the apathy from respective governments, some of them are leaving agriculture and some others are committing suicides. All this comes as a shock to all of us.
Agriculture is a dangerous occupation also. Let us take the case of United States where agriculture is also called the backbone of the country. A few years ago, agriculture ranked eighth as one of the most dangerous occupations. Today agriculture ranks as fourth dangerous occupation. According to the U.S Bureau of Labour Statistic, fatalities and injuries among agricultural workers are on the rise. Farm workers are 800 per cent more likely to dies on the job than in other industries. The National Safety Council of the U.S reports that of the about 3.1 million peoples who work on America’s 2.3 million farms and ranches, 1300 die each year and 120,000 are injured.
Farm workers’ and farmers who produce everything on this planet and have an important role in accomplishing various food systems should be ensured with appropriate protection and safety. They should enjoy certain exclusive rights related to agriculture that must be upheld to give due recognition to them in their efforts to produce food for all of us. This is also necessary to save them from the unnecessary harassment from different sources. Farming must be made more sustainable and remunerative by adopting practices which do not promote usage of external inputs, but use of local resources. Farm Mechanization and Digitization can go a long way in reducing drudgery among farm workers especially farm women. Farm workers are still a ststic entity. They should also be mobilized through different collective associations like Self Help Groups and Farmer Producer Organizations for their empowerment in the true sense.
Recently International Labour Organization ILO has come out with a report. The report, ‘Revolutionizing Health and Safety: The Role of Artificial Intelligence and Digitalization at Work explores’ how artificial intelligence (AI), digitization, robotics and automation are reshaping occupational safety and health (OSH) in work places around the world. This report highlights how these emerging technologies are improving workers’ health and well-being while highlighting the need for proactive policies to address new risks. AI-powered systems are improving safety and health monitoring at work, as well as streamlining tasks and operations, easing workloads and driving innovation-including in traditionally low-tech sectors. The report also emphasizes the need for proactive policies and regulations to ensure these technologies are implemented safely and fairly.
(The author writes on agriculture and social issues)
