Prime Minister of India - Dr. Manmohan Singh

PM's address at the 41st Session of Indian Labour Conference

"I am very happy to be here at this 41st Session of the Indian Labour Conference. I attach great importance to the deliberations of this conference. I would like this conference to create a climate congenial to good industrial relations in our country. Our Government is committed to working with labour and business communities to create a new era of inclusive and employment oriented economic growth. I urge you all to strengthen our hands in our efforts to speed up the process of social and economic development.

I am particularly happy that on this occasion we are presenting the Shram Awards for the year 2004. I offer my warmest greetings and hearty congratulations to all the Award Winners.

The Shram Awards recognise exemplary commitment and dedication to work. It is said that successful people are not different from others. They only do things differently. Our award winners today are normal ordinary people who have accomplished extraordinary achievements. Their single minded pursuit of excellence through creativity and hard work should be a source of inspiration to all their colleagues and comrades. These awards are therefore a way of expressing our gratitude and our appreciation. They should inspire others to also work hard for the welfare of our people and the progress of our nation.

It is not a coincidence that this year we have chosen to present these Awards at the 41st Session of the Indian Labour Conference. It is our intention to give these Awards in the presence of the tallest leaders of our Trade Union Movement, Distinguished representatives of business and representatives of Central and State Governments. These three arms form the tripartite edifice of the industrial economy of our country and must work together for our nation to move forward. Each one of the three arms should feel proud that we have among our workers and employees exemplary achievers. Let us all celebrate their achievement together since we are all the beneficiaries of our nation's progress.

Our labour policy derives its origin, inspiration and strength from the leaders of our freedom struggle and from the ideas of our socially conscious citizens. Our policy reflects the wisdom of the constituent assembly of our Constitution, of the conventions and recommendations adopted by the International Labour Conference as well as the decisions taken in the Indian Labour Conferences over a period of last six decades and to which my colleague Oscar Fernandes has made a handsome reference. Your conference has aptly been described as the Labour Parliament of India. It is a confluence of creative forces and energies, the testing ground of tripartite consultations and it symbolises the merits of consensus in decision-making processes of our nation.

The National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) gives primacy to employment. It is our firm belief that the defining objective of our labour policy should be employment generation and the welfare of the working people both in the organised and in the unorganised sector. Our Government believes in the value of dialogue in the formulation of major policies. This forum is meant to promote this dialogue in some very important aspects of managing the social and economic change in our country. I assure you that our Government will work with Trade Unions and industries to strengthen labour laws to ensure that we meet the twin objectives of employment generation and workers' welfare. I would like our trade union movement to be as committed to the task of generating new employment as it is, to the responsibility of protecting the interests of those already working. In the long run, the standard of living of a nation is a matter of high productivity and there are no shortcuts to it. Our system of industrial relations therefore should promote both growth of productivity and a fairer share of the gains resulting from higher productivity. We have therefore to create an environment in which all stakeholders have an adequate incentive to be active participants in the management of social and economic change.

To promote new employment we need an environment in which both the Government and the private sector are encouraged to invest. There is much that trade unions and business leaders can do to help us create such an environment. I sincerely believe that if we can provide an environment in which investors feel confident enough to invest, we will be able to generate more gainful employment and promote also workers' welfare.

The challenge before us is to ensure that our economy functions at the frontiers of modern science and technology. We have to be receptive to technological change and to the imperatives of modernisation if we have to remain competitive in an increasingly integrated global economy. We cannot find viable solutions to our problems working or thinking in isolation.

The experience of countries like China should alert us to the vital role of industrial modernisation and management of technical change. At the same time, I do believe that the cost of modernisation and change should not be borne unduly by the working class. It is our solemn duty to protect the interests of workers and of all those seeking work even as we manage processes of social and economic change. It is, therefore, necessary to evolve mechanisms to smoothen the effects of processes of technological change. Our industrial relations policy must be sensitive both to the need to absorb new technologies and ensure competitiveness of our firms, as well as the need to create new employment opportunities and protect the interests of the working people.

Our country is passing through a phase in which it is blessed with a large working population. People can be turned from social liabilities to economic and social assets, if they can be gainfully employed. Investment in their capabilities, in workers' education and training and investment in labour intensive manufacturing are necessary to promote growth of employment and also to promote workers' welfare.

The challenge before us is to increase the skilled workforce from about 5% at present to about 50%, which is the norm, I believe, in many developed countries. To make our working people employable we must create adequate infrastructure for skilled training and certification and for imparting training, industrial training institutes therefore must keep pace with the technological demands of modern industry and the expanding universe of technical knowledge.

I hope your conference would deliberate on this issue of enhancing the knowledge and skills of our labour force including in the informal sector. The certification of skills acquired through informal means can also help increase employability of our working people. Industry must therefore involve itself in every aspect of skill development so that skill creation is demand driven and relevant to emerging market opportunities on the horizon.

I commend our technicians, our technocrats and our engineers whose toil and hard work have put India among the front rank of the nations of the world. I once again compliment the Shram Award winners. I do believe that a better educated, informed and technically qualified workforce and world class and cost effective infrastructure can help Indian industry compete in the global markets and we must have the ambition to compete in the global markets and generate more employment opportunities for our working people in the process.

The strength and vibrancy of Government's partnership with workers and employers has withstood the test of time. I am sure that all of us - the Government and its social partners - can work together with an accommodative approach and address the challenges facing our nation - facing these challenges unitedly. We are all partners in processes of nation building and we are not adversaries. Let us, therefore, work hard with a greater sense of purpose and commitment and renewed commitment to take our nation to the greater heights of social and economic development. With these words, I once again thank you."