The government can only bring regulation for sectors it exerts direct control on: these are mainly classified into two categories - economic and social, or hard and soft. The economic sectors include all those industries that directly contribute to the growth of the economy such as infrastructure, finance, agriculture, mining etc; whereas social sectors include areas that directly deal with people's lives such as water, health, environment, education, housing etc. While a major chunk of service providers to both these sectors come under the organised sector through consulting agencies, private sector, NGOs and other white-collared professions that support the executive, legislative and judiciary roles of the government, there is a robust unorganized sector which is the "critical backbone" of the organised sector. Percentage share of unorganized sector in service sector in terms of human capital far exceeds the number of people engaged by organised sector. This is what makes this unfettered sector a support system for the organised sector. Unorganized sector includes all kinds of labour in professions ranging from domestic help, gardener, fruit and vegetable seller, private driver, rickshaw puller, kiryana store seller, shoe-mender, carpenter, plumber, beautician, astrologer to ad-hoc staff hired by organisations and individuals primarily operating in or on behalf of the organised sector.
Despite plethora of unending professional support that comes from the unorganised sector, is it completely unregulated as only role of the government is to provide skills to train large population in a country like India for employment generation. This blog is to critique this 'limited role' to move to a more 'human capital' or 'human resource' oriented governance role.
The government in the past has focused towards more industry-oriented sectors that lead to direct economic growth, resulting in neglect of human capital. At a point at which there is unchecked migration to urban areas in search of lucrative options, there is a need of governance both on the demand and supply side.
On demand side
When the services of the unoganised sector personnel is availed, there is no formal agreement between the two parties as it is done on mutual trust. The only preventive regulation is 'police verification' in case of engaging someone for house-hold support activities. In many cases, employers have to face harassment from hiring someone with unprofessional attitude and behavior, which are issues that are not resolvable, in many instances causing disputes and in extreme but prevalent situations, crimes.
On supply side
Although there are many agencies that register staff for professional services, even in digital era, hiring is a challenge due to bottlenecks in value chain of these agents. For instance, domestic helpers are not registered on any portal, and same is the case with shoe-menders, gardeners and many other professionals. If there is a government mandate of compulsory registration based on Aadhar number or a similar ID, search and hiring would be streamlined. It would also monitor illegal migration for vote-bank politics in urban spaces, and streamline the problem of slums, unauthorized occupation and menace on public or private properties.
Concluding thoughts
The present government is based on the principle of 'minimum government, maximum governance', however, India still fairs poorly on the Human Development Index. An orientation towards its human capital by regulating the unorganised sector would not just improve accountability of the nation towards economic growth, but also strengthen last mile connection between human-human service delivery. With a system that has moved away from trust, small steps can foster this business relationship at the very basic level. The simplest definition of Democracy is governance by the people, for, and of the people. In this case, "for" is to protect the interests of the "demand side" and "of" to check the irregularities on the "supply side".
Despite plethora of unending professional support that comes from the unorganised sector, is it completely unregulated as only role of the government is to provide skills to train large population in a country like India for employment generation. This blog is to critique this 'limited role' to move to a more 'human capital' or 'human resource' oriented governance role.
The government in the past has focused towards more industry-oriented sectors that lead to direct economic growth, resulting in neglect of human capital. At a point at which there is unchecked migration to urban areas in search of lucrative options, there is a need of governance both on the demand and supply side.
On demand side
When the services of the unoganised sector personnel is availed, there is no formal agreement between the two parties as it is done on mutual trust. The only preventive regulation is 'police verification' in case of engaging someone for house-hold support activities. In many cases, employers have to face harassment from hiring someone with unprofessional attitude and behavior, which are issues that are not resolvable, in many instances causing disputes and in extreme but prevalent situations, crimes.
On supply side
Although there are many agencies that register staff for professional services, even in digital era, hiring is a challenge due to bottlenecks in value chain of these agents. For instance, domestic helpers are not registered on any portal, and same is the case with shoe-menders, gardeners and many other professionals. If there is a government mandate of compulsory registration based on Aadhar number or a similar ID, search and hiring would be streamlined. It would also monitor illegal migration for vote-bank politics in urban spaces, and streamline the problem of slums, unauthorized occupation and menace on public or private properties.
Concluding thoughts
The present government is based on the principle of 'minimum government, maximum governance', however, India still fairs poorly on the Human Development Index. An orientation towards its human capital by regulating the unorganised sector would not just improve accountability of the nation towards economic growth, but also strengthen last mile connection between human-human service delivery. With a system that has moved away from trust, small steps can foster this business relationship at the very basic level. The simplest definition of Democracy is governance by the people, for, and of the people. In this case, "for" is to protect the interests of the "demand side" and "of" to check the irregularities on the "supply side".
