By Vivek Joseph
Hyderabad: A nationwide network of workers organizations on August 19 launched helpline to provide legal aid and redressal for workers in the unorganized-sector in Hyderabad and four other cities in India.
The Hyderabad launch took place at the opening of the Telangana chapter of Working People’s Charter that works among laborers in the informal economy. Activists, academia and other voluntary organisations are also part of the charter.
The chapter also launched the helpline’s branches in Bangalore, Delhi, Lucknow and Mumbai cities.
The office of the India Labourline was inaugurated by child-rights activist Padmashree Shantha Sinha, founder of the Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation and professor at the Hyderabad Central University.
Sinha, a Magsaysay awardee and former chairperson of the National Commission for protection of Child Rights, lauded the setting up of the toll-free helpline as a much-needed step to help address the numerous struggles of the working classes and the incapabilities of existing mechanisms to effectively deal with them, something which the Pandemic has effectively exposed.
More than 20 organizations representing diverse sectors from across Telangana attended the meeting held at the Montfort Social Institute in Hyderabad, the Telangana state capital.
The charter also focuses on areas of minimum wage, worker housing, the enforcement of labor standards, right to work, bonded labor and social security for unorganized workers, among other things, explained Theckanath, the institute director.
The “mediation and legal aid” helpline called the ‘India Labourline’ is the flagship initiative, he added.
Set up at the Montfort Social Institute, the Hyderabad helpline provides legal aid and redressal for unorganized-sector workers, supporting them in disputes related to wage-theft, worksite accidents, harassment and bonded labor issues. The helpline already functions
A worker seeking support can call the toll-free number (1800 833 9020) to be connected to tele-counsellors who speak Telugu, Hindi, Kannada and Marathi.
Brother Theckanath said India Helpline is the first of its kind to have gone pan India. It is modeled after the one by Ajeevika Bureau in Rajasthan started eight years ago.
The new initiative is dedicated to workers in any kind of distress, he added.
The helpline focuses particularly on informal and migrant workers as several labor laws do not address wage and social security rights of these people.
The setting up of the helpline “has become even more pertinent when one considers the chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the dismal lack of mechanisms to provide relief and assistance, especially to migrant workers,” said the brother, who has been active among grassroots groups for decades.