Editorial 1 : The Sarkari Naukri
Introduction: Maratha reservation agitation shows a fundamental contradiction in India’s private sector-led growth story.
Reason for attraction towards government jobs
- Job security and prestige associated with government job
- Becoming a part of the power structure
- Saving oneself from the state’s repression
- Decent work life balance
- Lack of organized labor union in the private sector and hence less bargaining power in private sector.
- Dilution of workers’ rights in new labor code of India
- Recent laying off of employees by companies.
- Lack of opportunities in private sector
- Benefit of reservation in government jobs
- Less emphasis on soft skill/communication skills of employee as compared to private sector (specially for vernacular candidates)
- New emphasis of corporate leaders for raising working hours in private sector (recently Narayan Murthy called for 70 hours working in a week)
Because of these reasons, government jobs are sought after in India, despite tremendous growth in private-sector led Indian economy.
Government and private sector can take some of the measures to raise the attraction of private sector in India.
- Improve pay and benefits of formal jobs
- More formalization of jobs
- Follow the labor code in letter and spirit at the same time raise the bargaining power of laborers in India.
- More hours of work do not result in more productivity. Hence the private sector should resist increasing work hours.
- Provide opportunities for growth and career progression through upskilling, reskilling, etc.
- Create a positive non-hostile work culture
- Create an awareness about the perks and benefits to join private sector among the youth
- Increasing apprenticeship programmes in a big way to attract youth to the private sector.
- Reduce the entry barrier for vernacular candidates into the private sector.
Conclusion: The increasing demand for reservation, the appeal of government jobs, and the rise in demand for bringing reservation/quota in the private sector show the deterioration of the quality of jobs in private sector. Government and private sector must come together to reduce this contradiction between private sector-led growth and state led job market in India.
Editorial 2 : The Tyranny of Productivity
Introduction: Narayan Murthy appealed to the younger generation to work for 70 hours a week to increase the productivity of the labour market in India. This has raised a debate in India on raising working hours in the private sector.
Why Narayan Murthy’s assessment is not right
- First, it is wrong to keep worshipping the fetish of economic prosperity and productivity without looking at what really matters for the growth of a sane and egalitarian society — the practice of distributive justice, or the spirit of non-possessiveness and egalitarian ethos of sharing.
- Most of the workforce in India works for more than 70 hours a week, be it auto-rickshaw drivers, casual workers, housewives, etc. Yet, they are poor.
- The reason for their poverty is not by choice, but by structural deficiency of the inegalitarian society of India. Here is a huge discrepancy in the salary structure of some of the leading corporate houses in India. (Even in 2023, a report suggests, Infosys is paying young freshers only Rs. 3.72 lakh annually. But then, as the report says, the CEO’s pay is almost 2,200 times a fresher’s pay.)
- Second, there is a need to reflect on what can broadly be perceived as “alienation” in the work sphere. Well, young Karl Marx wrote extensively on “alienation” or “estrangement”— the kind of work that is far removed from creative play and causes a sense of fatigue and meaninglessness.
- For example, a creative artist can spend 15 hours a day working on his/her area of interest and gaining mental pleasure from his work. But a computer engineer working for 70 hours will not gain any mental pleasure from his/her job, despite a lucrative package.
- One should be aware of the existential pain and other health issues relating to what many would regard as the “burnout” effect.
- And finally, we need to rescue the power of our imagination or aspiration for a good and meaningful life from what Murthy seems to be pleading for — work, work, and work with the sole aim of “economic prosperity”.
- There is something more to life than the act of being confined to a cubicle in a lavish corporate house, working ceaselessly, and then consuming mindlessly in a supermall on the weekend.
- Possibly, they are saying that “idleness” is tremendously beautiful; it enables us to know ourselves and gives us the “surplus” time to look at the sunset and invoke Vincent van Gogh, or meditate on the play of a butterfly with a tiny yellow flower.
Conclusion: whether Narayan Murthy’s advice was prudent or not depends on which side of the debate one is. The recent ‘resignation Tsunami’ has shown the world that expecting more work from already exhausted workers might not be a good idea. Perhaps a middle path would be more prudent in this situation.