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5 Indian J.L. & Just. 237 (2014)
Way Forward for Empowering of Unorganized Workers in India: A Review of the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008

handle is hein.journals/ijlj5 and id is 245 raw text is: Way Forward for Empowering of Unorganized Workers in India: A Review of the Unorganised Workers Social Security Act, 2008 Dipankar Debnath' I. Introduction: Most people in India earn a livelihood by working for an income. They work for one employer or many, or as self employed or own account workers or as contract workers, home-based workers etc. in every sector in the economy. It has been recognized that workers need to have good working conditions, receive a minimum wage, and have access to a minimum amount of social security. To this end a large number of labour laws were passed which cover different aspects of a worker's needs, however, only about 8% of workers actually get the benefits available under these Acts. The rest 92%, over 30 crores, work in the unorganized sector, and either are not eligible for coverage, or these Acts are just not implemented for them, with the result that these workers have insecure employments and low incomes. They have no coverage of social security, and have to spend out of their meager incomes for all contingencies such as illness and children's education; in their old age they are helpless. This, in spite of the fact that they contribute over 60% of the country's GDP. II. Dignified Life of Unorganised Workers and the Indian Constitution: The Constitution of India is the source of labor jurisprudence in the country. The Constitution of India provides for right to unionization, freedom of speech and expression, right against forced labor, right against child labor, right to livelihood, equal pay for equal work, right to appropriate conditions of work, and maternity relief for the working population in the country. While some of these constitutional guarantees - such as right to unionization, freedom of speech and expression, right against forced labor, and right against child labor - are justiciable, others are not. The Constitution of India envisages that constitutionally guaranteed labor rights are to be realized through appropriate legislative enactment. However, the high powered National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) reports that legislative enactment realizing constitutional guarantees are inadequate so far as informal workers are concerned. Accordingly, informal workers in India remain excluded from constitutional guarantees. Workers in India are protected under the socialist Constitution ' Assistant Professor-in-law, Indian Institute of Legal Studies, Dagapur, Siliguri, Dist- Darjeeling. West Bengal. 2http://www.cnisbss.org/Newsline/PDF/LJR03022009/Note-onUnorganizedSect or _Workers.pdf.

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