In a detailed examination of the Union Ministry of Labour’s recent circulation of the Draft National Labour and Employment Policy (Draft Shram Shakti Niti, 2025), the CJP has pointed out that the schema and intent of the document does not deal specifically with any/which kinds of workers i.e., gig worker, agricultural worker, factory workers, MNREGA workers, or migrant workers. The need for such specification and detail is vital so that the policy is to ensure that workers get skills for upward social mobility to occur, especially in the age of AI. Besides, submits CJP, “The policy needs to move beyond the mere aim of administrative ease with respect to labour governance and truly envisage a labour policy that will guide India into an era of better wages, resulting in better standards of living, and better standards of working conditions. The fact that the policy does not mention trade unions and instead sees to formalise the existing workforce using technology is not prudent since it individualises worker concerns and thereby reduce bargaining power of workers and that is antithetical to constitutional values.”
About a month ago the Draft Policy had been circulated and the Ministry had invited feedback on the draft Shram Shakti Niti 2025. While the initiative to update India’s labour and employment policy in light of changing technological, demographic, and economic realities is welcome states CJP, a careful examination of the draft, has led the human rights organisation to submit detailed comments and actionable recommendations aimed at ensuring that the policy truly advances constitutional values of equality, dignity, and social justice.
Giving a rationale for this need to actually dis-aggregate the policy and detail its application to different kinds of workers, CJP has in the detailed tabular Comments and Recommendations underlined that “Work demand under MNREGA work is increasing, the gig workers are facing precarious work conditions and there is huge amount of supply of gig workers. Agricultural labour face one of the most intense employment insecurities and yet, the availability of agricultural labour is scarce in rural regions. The problems they face are different. Therefore, different action plans and policy outlook need to be envisaged for different kinds of workers. Administrative ease of linking people with jobs and jog givers, and management of data across ministries and departments is a centralised advantage for the government.” This and “the absence of an articulated framework for tripartite negotiation among workers, employers, and the State risks concentrating decision-making power within government and weakening workers’ ability to secure equitable outcomes. At a structural level, the continued whittling down of state powers in the concurrent domain, undermines the federal balance essential for meaningful labour reform.”
Addressing these lacunae in the focus of the entire policy, CJP has stated that, a revised approach should:
- Address these issues in the further drafts by incorporating specific visions for different kinds of workers mentioned above.
- Introduce tripartite negotiation frameworks at national and state levels where the State is not the arbiter of worker interests but a facilitator of dialogue.
- Strengthen the section on cooperative federalism, a basic feature of the Constitution, by emphasising a federal policy structure, ensuring meaningful participation of State governments in labour governance.
- Explicitly recognise trade unions and collective bargaining as constitutional mechanisms for worker participation and policy co-creation under Articles 19. 41 and 43 of the Constitution.
The rest of the Tabular Comments on the Draft Shram Shakti Niti may be read here:
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