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Freebies poor compensation for absence of minimum wages, workers' rights: Brinda Karat
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....reebies poor compensation for absence of minimum wages, workers' rights: Brinda Karat<BR>PTI News<BR>Dated:- 14-2-2025<BR>PTI<BR>New Delhi, Feb 14 (PTI) Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Friday wrote an open letter to Supreme Court Judge B R Gavai over his observations on "freebies", saying that the so-called freebies are poor compensation for the absence of implementation....
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.... of minimum wages and other workers' rights. In an open letter, the CPI(M) Politburo member said it is not factually correct to state that workers do not work because they are getting freebies. "I write this open letter to you as one who has been engaged in various capacities in social and political work among the labouring classes, particularly poor women. This is in relation to the reported ....
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....comments made by you about “freebies” during the hearing on a petition on rights of the homeless," Karat said. The Supreme Court on Wednesday deprecated the practice of political parties promising "freebies" just ahead of elections and asked "are we not creating a class of parasites" instead of bringing people into the mainstream. A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih al....
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....so observed that people were not willing to work as they were getting free ration and money. "This letter is necessary because these reported comments published widely in the Press may prejudice social opinion against those receiving what you have referred to as 'freebies'," Karat said. She said her plea through the letter is for a reconsideration of some of the comments. Talking about t....
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....he direct cash benefit transfer schemes of between 1000 to 2000 rupees being run by nine state governments, expected to increase to at least 12 going by pre-poll promises, she said, "You have reportedly said that because of this money, people -- in the case of women related schemes, it would be women -- are not willing to work. This is factually incorrect since the large majority of women are alre....
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....ady working -- doing unpaid work -- in the domestic sphere and also often unpaid work in family enterprises, including in agricultural operations". She said to criticise the practice of political parties launching a scheme just before elections to get the female vote is understandable, but to accuse women of "not being willing to work" because of these schemes is not factual and an injustice to ....
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....women. "On an average Indian women spend 7.2 hours daily on unpaid domestic work. This works out to around 50 hours a week. For women doing remunerated work outside the home, the burden of domestic work adds to the number of hours she works a day," she said. Karat quoted a survey by the State Bank of India (SBI) done in 2023-24, which said if the extent of women's unpaid work is monetised it wou....
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....ld amount to a whopping 22 lakh crore rupees a year, estimated to be around 7 per cent of the country's GDP. "The stipend to women through these schemes, though meagre and inadequate, may be considered social compensation as a right, not largesse or a freebie," the CPI(M) leader said, adding, "It is another matter that political parties may cynically manipulate a right as a benefit, for narrow e....
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....lectoral considerations." On the issue of “free rations”, she said, "Perhaps the Honourable Justice is unaware of the facts. The free ration referred to is just 5 kgs an individual for the entire month that too consists only of cereals." "This is less than the average individual cereal consumption in India estimated to be 9 kg a month. In fact, food inflation has been at an all time high,....
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.... playing havoc with family budgets," she said, adding that no one can survive just on the free rations. She also referred to Gavai mentioning his personal experience as an agriculturist stating that agriculturists are not getting labourers, and said this was the reason initially given against the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. "In fact as seen the work on M....
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....NREGA sites, mainly earth work is much harder than agricultural work," she said. Karat added that the latest economic survey itself points to stagnating or decreased rural wages and said it is again not factually correct to state that workers do not work because they are getting freebies. "On the contrary the so-called freebies are poor compensation for the absence of implementation of minimum....
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.... wages and other workers’ rights," she said. She added that welfare schemes of the government of India are a constitutional requirement for social and economic justice. "Sir, your comments do not do justice to the hardworking women of India. Nor do they recognise the hard struggle that the labouring people of India face for survival because of rampant unemployment, precarious nature of work ....
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....available and low wages. The poor should not be stripped of their dignity by comments reportedly made by the highest court of the land," she said. "I would request you to kindly reconsider your comments," the CPI(M) leader added. PTI AO AO ARD ARD<BR> News - Press release - PIB....