[Marxistindia] Letter of Brinda Karat to Shri B R Gavai

[news from the cpi(m)]

February 14, 2025

Press Release

 

Smt. Brinda Karat, member, Polit Bureau of Communist Party of India
(Marxist) and former Member of  Parliament, Rajya Sabha had written the
following open letter today to Shri B. R. Gavai, Hon'ble Supreme Court
Justice regarding the reported comments made by him about `freebies'.

We are herewith releasing the text of the letter for publication.

 

 

(Muralidharan)

For CPI(M) Central Committee office

 

***

 

Respected Sir,

 

I write this open letter to you as one who has been engaged in various
capacities in social and political work among the labouring classes,
particularly poor women. This is in relation to the reported comments made
by you about "freebies" during the hearing on a petition on rights of the
homeless.  This letter is necessary because these reported comments
published widely in the Press may prejudice social opinion against those
receiving what you have referred to as "freebies.' I know there is a
petition pending in the Supreme Court on this very topic and will await the
judgement. But my plea through this letter is for a reconsideration of some
of the comments.

 

Sir, you are reported as having said " "Unfortunately, because of these
freebies, which come on the anvil of the elections.some Ladki Bahin and some
other scheme, people are not willing to work. They are getting free ration,
they are getting amount without any work, why should they work?... But would
it not be better to make them a part of the mainstream of society and permit
them to contribute to the development of the nation?" "I am telling you of
the practical experiences...because of these freebies, some states give free
ration...so the people do not want to work. I come from an agricultural
family. Because of the freebies in Maharashtra, which were just announced
prior to the elections, the agriculturalists are not getting labourers. When
everybody is getting free at home, why would they want to work?" 

 

The "Ladki-Behen scheme" presumably refers to the direct cash benefit
transfer of between 1000 to 2000 rupees by nine state governments, expected
to increase to at least 12, going by pre-poll promises. You have reportedly
said that because of this money, people-in the case of women related
schemes, it would be women --are not willing to work. This is factually
incorrect since the large majority of women are already working-doing unpaid
work-in the domestic sphere and also often unpaid work in family
enterprises, including in agricultural operations. So the issue here is not
that they are not working, but that they are working without any
remuneration. On an average Indian women spend 7.2 hours daily on unpaid
domestic work. This works out to around 50 hours a week. For women doing
remunerated work outside the home, the burden of domestic work adds to the
number of hours she works a day.

 

According to an SBI survey of 2023-24 if the extent of women's unpaid work
is monetised it would amount to a whopping 22 lakh crore rupees a year which
was estimated to be around 7 per cent of the country's GDP that year. This
unpaid work contribution of India's women, which is a key to family
survival, is among the highest in the world. This work by women is socially
unrecognised and demeaned as "women not working." Regretfully your reported
comments add to this notion. The stipend to women through these schemes,
though meagre and inadequate may be considered social compensation as a
right, not largesse or a freebie. It is another matter that political
parties may cynically manipulate a right as a benefit, for narrow electoral
considerations. To criticise the practice of this or that political party
launching a scheme just before elections to get the female vote is
understandable. But to accuse women of "not being willing to work" because
of these schemes is not factual and an injustice to women.

 

Another issue raised is that of "free rations." "Perhaps the Honourable
Justice is unaware of the facts. The free ration referred to is just 5 kgs
an individual for the entire month that too consists only of cereals. This
is less than the average individual cereal consumption in India estimated to
be 9 kg a month. In fact, food inflation has been at an all time high,
playing havoc with family budgets. India has the largest malnourished
population in the world. It is for these reasons that concerned citizens and
organisations have been pressing for additional items in the rationing
system to ensure proteins and a more nutritious diet at affordable prices.
In any case, no one can survive just on the free rations. 

 

Sir, you have mentioned your personal experience as an agriculturist and
stated the conclusion that "agriculturists are not getting labourers,
because if they are getting it free why would they work?" This is one of the
reasons given by those opposing the 100 day guarantee work law, particularly
from Maharashtra. It was said that the scheme would attract workers, at the
cost of agriculturists requiring labour. In fact as seen the work on MNREGA
sites, mainly earth work is much harder than agricultural work. Since it is
piece rated work sometimes the productivity norm is exceedingly high, upto
an individual having to dig the equivalent of 2000 kgs of mud a day. However
the law ensures an equal wage between men and women. This is not the case in
agriculture. It is not that labourers are not going to do work because they
are getting free rations or other freebies, but because the wages for
agricultural work are either stagnant or lower. The latest economic survey
itself points to stagnating or decreased rural wages. Therefore, it is again
not factually correct to state that workers do not work because they are
getting freebies. On the contrary the so-called freebies are poor
compensation for the absence of implementation of minimum wages and other
workers' rights.

 

Welfare schemes of the government of India are a constitutional requirement
for social and economic justice, more so in a country such as ours' which is
ranked among the most unequal societies in the world.

 

Sir, your comments do not do justice to the hardworking women of India. Nor
do they recognise the hard struggle that the labouring people of India face
for survival because of rampant unemployment, precarious nature of work
available and low wages. The poor should not be stripped of their dignity by
comments reportedly made by the highest court of the land.

 

I would request you to kindly reconsider your comments.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Sd/-

(Brinda Karat)

 

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