laws and social justice importent summary

     Why do we need a law on minimum wages?

 Ans: Private companies, contractors, businesspersons normally want to make as much profit as they can.

In the drive for profits, they might deny workers their rights and not pay them wages.

A worker has to be paid not less than the minimum wage by the employer.

The minimum wages are revised upwards every few years.

2.      making laws is not enough. The government has to ensure that these laws are implemented. This means that the law must be enforced. For instance, to ensure that every worker gets fair wages, the government has to regularly inspect work sites and punish those who violate the law. When workers are poor or powerless, the fear of losing future earnings or facing reprisals often forces them to accept low wages.

3.      Through making, enforcing and upholding these laws, the government can control the activities of individuals or private companies so as to ensure social justice.

4.      The Right against Exploitation says that no one can be forced to work for low wages or under bondage. Similarly, the Constitution lays down “no child below the age of 14 shall be employed to work in any factory or mines or any other hazardous employment.”

5.      n October 2006, the government amended the Child Labour Prevention Act, banning children under 14 years of age from working as domestic servants or as workers in dhabas, restaurants, tea shops etc. It made employing these children a punishable offence. Anyone found violating the ban must be penalised with a punishment ranging from a jail term of three months to two years and/or fine of Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000.

6.       Bhopal Gas Tragedy

The world’s worst industrial tragedy took place in Bhopal 24 years ago. Union Carbide (UC) an American company had a factory in the city in which it produced pesticides. At midnight on 2 December 1984 methyl-isocyanite (MIC) - a highly poisonous gas - started leaking from this UC plant..

Remembers Aziza Sultan, a survivor: “At about 12.30 am I woke to the sound of my baby coughing badly. In the half-light I saw that the room was filled with a white cloud. I heard people shouting ‘run, run’. Then I started coughing, with each breath seeming as if I was breathing in fire. My eyes were burning.” Mass cremations A child severely affected by the gas The next morning.

Within three days, more than 8,000 people were dead. Hundreds of thousands were maimed.

Most of those exposed to the poison gas came from poor, working-class families, of which nearly 50,000 people are today too sick to work. Among those who survived, many developed severe respiratory disorders, eye problems and other disorders. Children developed peculiar abnormalities.

Q. Why did Union Carbide set up its plant in India?

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Q. What are the advantages to foreign companies in setting up production in India?

Ans: Foreign companies come to India for cheap labour.

Wages that the companies pay to workers, say in the U.S.A., are far higher than what they have to pay to workers in poorer countries like India.

For lower pay, companies can get longer hours of work.

Additional expenses such as for housing facilities for workers are also fewer. Thus, companies can save costs and earn higher profits.

Q. Why Bhopal tragedy was happened?

Ans: In the UC plant, every safety device was malfunctioning or was in short supply. Between 1980 and 1984, the work crew for the MIC plant was cut in half from 12 to 6 workers.

The period of safety training for workers was brought down from 6 months to 15 days!

 The post of night-shift worker for the MIC plant was abolished.

Q. What is meant by workers’ vulnerability?

Ans; One worker can easily replace another. Since there is so much unemployment.

 There are many workers who are willing to work in unsafe conditions in return for a wage.

Employers ignore safety in workplaces. Thus, there are regular reports of accidents in construction sites, mines or factories.

Enforcement of Safety Laws

It is a duty of the government to ensure that the Right to Life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution is not violated,

Q. Why do you think enforcement of safety laws is important in any factory?

Ans; There are regular reports of accidents in construction sites, mines or factories.

With more industries being set up both by local and foreign businesses in India, there is a great need for stronger laws protecting workers’ rights and better enforcement of these laws.

New Laws to Protect the Environment

In response to this pressure from environmental activists and others, in the years following the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Indian government introduced new laws on the environment.

Henceforth, the polluter was to be held accountable for the damage done to environment. The environment is something that people over generations will share, and it could not be destroyed merely for industrial development.

The courts also gave a number of judgments upholding the right to a healthy environment as intrinsic to the Fundamental Right to Life. In Subhash Kumar vs. State of Bihar (1991), the Supreme Court held that the Right to Life is a Fundamental Right under Article 21 of the Constitution and it includes the right to the enjoyment of pollution-free water and air for full enjoyment of life.

The government is responsible for setting up laws and procedures that can check pollution, clean rivers and introduce heavy fines for those who pollute.

Emissions from vehicles are a major cause of environmental pollution.

In a series of rulings (1998 onwards), the Supreme Court had ordered all public transport vehicles using diesel were to switch to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

As a result of this move, air pollution in cities like Delhi came down considerably.