Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has assured the activists and leaders of the National Campaign Committee for Unorganised Sector Workers (NCC-USW) that he would send their memorandum to the Petition Committee for the enactment process of legislation before the end of current session of Parliament.  The memorandum signed by 350,000 people demands immediate enactment of the comprehensive legislation for unorganised workers and amendment of National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill. The Speaker has also promised the delegates to write to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting him to personally look into the matter. The delegation was part of the unorganised sector workers’ rally in the national capital on 5 May 2005.

 

On 5 May, New Delhi witnessed a massive rally of unorganised workers from all over the country unanimously demanding the enactment of a comprehensive legislation ensuring social security and employment guarantee for them. Thousands of workers who participated in the rally raised their voice demanding protection and regularisation of  employment, wages and social security like pension, insurance, housing family welfare and child care.

 

The rallyists, while marching from Ram Leela grounds to Jantar Mantar, raised slogans demanding equal wages for both male and female unorganised workers, fixing of a national minimum wage above the poverty line according to the norms suggested by the Supreme Court, enactment of a separate legislation for agricultural workers and implementation of the Construction Workers Act of 1996.

 

The participants of the rally included the unorganized workers and activists from agriculture, anganwadi, construction, forests, fisheries, brick kilns besides beedi workers, colliery workers, loaders, domestic workers and even, rag packers.  They came in scores from the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chattisgarh.

 

At Jantar Mantar, former Prime Minister V P Singh, veteran socialist Surendra Mohan, various MPs and MLAs addressed the rally participants.