Half of India sunk into darkness as three grids in the North, East and North Eastern part of the country tripped. An estimated 600 million were plunged into darkness for more than 24 hours in what has infamously been now recorded in India’s name as the world’s biggest power blackout. Trains were jammed, traffic lights disrupted, factories stopped, and whole life came to a standstill for more than half of the nation. But most of the cricket crazy nation complained that this power disruption should not have happened atleast on the day when India very rarely registered an away-series win at Sri Lanka!
Maruti Suzuki’s violence and the stories emanating from the incident are most unfortunate and equally dark. The repercussions and far greater than estimated and may indicate a wider labour crisis in India that may hamper it’s image in the global market.
On one hand the statement of the S. Raju HR head at Maruti’s Manesar plant is heart-rending and send chill down one’s spine. The kind of riot & arson that happened in the those few hours on the fateful Thursday is horrifying tale of madness and labour extremism. The fact that this incident could have been prevented and the GM (HR) could have been alive but for the lack of agility of the police is shocking and numbing.
On the other hand, other stories that are emanating from the worker’s side show a huge disengagement amongst workers arising out of long brewing discontent. I quote from a recently published article:
"Mukesh Kumar Yadav says he’s struggling with medical bills after he lost two toes in an accident this month at a Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (MSIL) plant. He’s a contract worker who earns a fraction of a permanent employee and isn’t entitled to on-the-job injury compensation.
“We do not matter to them and they have no duty toward us,” said Yadav, who takes home about 7,000 rupees ($126) a month as a forklift driver at Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar plant. “Maruti just gets us to work and gives us money.”
Prior to the violence erupting July 18, the Manesar plant had already seen three production stoppages in the past year, as workers went on strike demanding the right to form a union, higher pay and better working conditions.
While Yadav didn’t take part in the July 18 riot that shuttered the plant and led to the death of a manager, his story helps show why discontent was brewing among workers. Other carmakers should take note of worker complaints in the run-up to the violence at India’s largest carmaker because wage disparity is prevalent across the auto industry, said Ammar Master, an analyst at LMC Automotive.
“This combination of lower economic benefits and perceived inequality is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode at the slightest altercation,” said Master, who’s based in Bangkok. “This is going to be a problem for everybody unless they address the issues. If these labor issues are not addressed, it’s going to take away investors from India.”
India’s series win at the next door neighbour’s place and one bronze medal in London Olympics so far (with an average of 1 in a billion) may give us the illusion of light at the end of a long dark tunnel. And we may again say … Jai Ho…
7 comments:
dear sir
India's showing at the olympics so far has been dismal. while i know i am not competent to criticise their performance in harsh terms i know that they surely can perform far better. china has forged ahead in terms of medals and may well end up as the leader of the pack. our sportspersons are seen lacking the ability to deliver at the highest stages.blaming lack of facilities is a common habit but then again serbia has produced tennis champs like novak djokovic who grew up as achild under the cloud of nato bombings. i suppose that being war torn is the worst thing for citizens but it is the fight in the stomach of the individuals that counts. this seems absent in our sportsmen. same was the case of abebe bikila, the barefoot ethiopian who won his first olympic gold. muhammad ali(then cassius clay) won his first gold in boxing despite the racism he faced back home. and our cricket team is expected to perform well but again its achievements are patchy as it has slipped rather quickly from the top in all forms of the game to lower positions. and our sportsmen receive many awards for the few performances which is something no other country does. it is supposed to encourage them, but it seems to be having a reverse effect.
and the power failure came as a huge shock to me. i read it on the hindu and it seemed to signify that the entire northern and north eastern grid had failed. for a country that is supposed to be a superpower in the making, it is something we can ill afford. hopefully it is a one off incident and normality will be restored soon. and india is expected to add more to its power generation capacity. india has improved in the power sector since its birth as a fragmented post colonial state but there is still much to achieve. about 20000 mw capacity is expected to be added by 2020. and it is i suppose difficult to develop such a huge landmass but it seems possible and maybe the pace will pick up.
the lack of swift intervention by the police in manesar is surprising. in bangalore a few years ago, the police were almost lynched when matinee idol rajkumar passed away. this inability of the police to be prepared to act decisively in times of crises is disturbing. as the force designated to protect the public and handle crises their ineptitude seems shocking.
the awards given to sportsmen in israel and uk are quite modest. and the awards given to our few successful sportsmen are dsiproportionally large. we can use this amount for something else. and we invariably send a small number of athletes for the games and get swamped by other countries. we also tend to idolise the and get carried away as a nation. this results in modest success going to the heads of the sportsmen. latvia has produced more gold medals in gymnastics. of course there may be other difficulties that the sportsmen may be encounterining that i may be unaware of.
dear sir
worker discontent on the lines described in your article are and have always been a cause of labour management disputes. it leads to alienation of the workers. better salaries among workers of all shades and the redressal of their grievances is a lesson most industries are supposed to follow. interestingly the reduction in worker discontent was predicted by max weber, who said that it will decline due to decomposition of the workers into skilled, semi skilled and unskilled categories, and also increased instances of labour management negotiations.
Very well written sir.
Hi Vishnu,
Valuable comments and very informative. Thanks,
Debashish
Hi Shrey,
Thanks a lot for commenting.
Cheers,
Debashish
Post a Comment