Poverty & Inequality

DUET: A proposal for an urban work programme

  • Blog Post Date 09 September, 2020
  • Symposium
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Jean Drèze

Ranchi University; Delhi School of Economics

jaandaraz@riseup.net

Jean Drèze presents a proposal for a simple scheme of subsidised public employment in urban areas, generated by multiple public institutions on their own initiative.

Editor’s Note:

Jean Drèze, who took part in drafting MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act), has now proposed a scheme called DUET (Decentralised Urban Employment and Training) for urban areas. It is a thought-provoking proposal and also timely since there are reports of the Government of India already thinking about some urban employment scheme. We feel that it would be timely to have a public conversation about the basic as well as detailed aspects of the proposed scheme in ‘Ideas for India’. With this in mind, we have decided to hold a symposium.

Jean’s proposal is posted below. Note that the proposal is not just a temporary relief measure for those who have lost their jobs. It is meant to create a lasting institution as an antidote to urban unemployment and urban decay. Please note that the motivation for DUET is quite different from that for MNREGA. MNREGA offers insurance to rural workers in a slack season or in a drought year when agricultural jobs disappear. That is not the case of urban production. Yet, there is significant unemployment in urban areas. Urban areas could use some infrastructure and there is under utilised labour but there are no resources to use this labour to build the infrastructure. DUET may be one way to solve this problem?

We are inviting comments from a whole range of people who have thought about these issues (Please see links at the end of this page). There are some basic issues such as whether we need something like DUET to tackle the twin goals of urban unemployment and much needed environment. Or, would a more straight forward measure such as channeling more central government funds to the municipalities suffice? There are more detailed issues of the design to avoid graft and leakages. For example, would the creation of ‘placement agencies’ solve the problem of collusion possibilities between employers and employees?

With this as an introduction, we are launching our symposium. 

Context

  • There is a crisis of employment in the urban informal sector, as millions of workers have lost their job due to periodic lockdowns, and may or may not retrieve it soon.
  • Our public institutions and public spaces (schools, colleges, health centres, bus stands, jails, shelters, hostels, parks, museums, offices, etc.) have a chronic problem of poor maintenance.
  • As public institutions reopen after months of lockdown, much work will be needed to restore the premises (cleaning, sanitising, white-washing, weeding, repairing, painting, plumbing, and so on).
  • There is growing interest in an employment guarantee act, but little experience of relief works in urban areas. Decentralised Urban Employment and Training (DUET) could act as a step towards urban employment guarantee.

The basic idea

  • The state government issues 'job stamps' and distributes them to approved institutions – schools, colleges, government departments, health centres, municipalities, neighbourhood associations, urban local bodies, etc. Initially, the approved institutions will be public institutions (private non-profit institutions could be considered later).
  • Each job stamp can be converted into one person-day of work within a specified period, with the approved institution arranging the work and the government paying the wages (statutory minimum) directly to the worker’s account on presentation of job stamps with a due-form work certificate from the employer.
  • Employees are to be selected from a pool of registered workers by the approved employer, or, better perhaps (to avoid collusion), by an independent 'placement agency' – see below.

Rationale

  • Activating a multiplicity of approved employers will help to generate a lot of employment.
  • The approved employers will have a stake in ensuring that the work is productive.
  • The scheme requires little staff of its own since existing institutions are the employers.
  • Workers are assured of timely payment at the minimum wage, and possibly other benefits.

Further possibilities

  • To avoid abuse, the use of job stamps could be restricted to a list of permissible works. But the list should be fairly comprehensive, and not restricted to maintenance.1
  • The list of works should not be so broad as to displace existing jobs in public institutions.
  • All DUET employment should be subject to worker safety and welfare norms specified in the scheme and existing labour laws.
  • All urban residents above the age of 18 should be eligible to register under DUET, but special registration drives or placement agencies could be located in low-income neighbourhoods.
  • The scheme would cover both skilled and unskilled workers. Whenever a skilled worker is employed, an assistant (unskilled) worker could be mandatorily employed as well, to impart an element of training and skill formation to the scheme. Further training facilities could be developed or explored over time, for example, by some of the non-profit placement agencies if any.
  • Some cost-sharing could be introduced, with the approved employer paying a small portion of the wages, or paying for the job stamps instead of getting them for free. That would help to ensure that work is productive. However, it would reduce employment generation. Also, cost- sharing is a complication, perhaps best avoided initially.
  • Simple norms will be required for allocation of job stamps among public institutions. Some limited transferability of job stamps among these institutions can be considered.
  • An independent authority could be appointed or designated at the municipal level to monitor, inspect, audit and evaluate the works.
  • The National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) could possibly play a role in DUET as well.
  • DUET could easily be initiated on a trial basis in a particular district or even municipality.

The placement agency

  • The primary role of the placement agency is to assign registered workers to approved employers as and when required. But it could also serve other purposes, for example, certifying workers’ skills, protecting workers from exploitation and arranging social benefits for them.
  • Various options could be considered for the placement agency, such as: (1) a single agency for the municipality, run by the local government; (2) a worker cooperative; (3) multiple placement agencies, run as non-profit organisations or cooperatives.

Precedents

  • Some countries have employment-subsidy schemes of similar inspiration, e.g. “service voucher schemes” (SVS) in several European countries. Belgium has a very popular SVS for domestic services such as cleaning and ironing. It was used by 1 out of 5 households in 2016.

Towards employment guarantee

  • It would be relatively easy to move from DUET towards demand-driven 'employment guarantee'. That would require the municipality to act as a last-resort employer, committed to providing work to all those who are demanding work but not finding any with other approved employers. Alternatively, DUET could become part of a larger employment guarantee programme in urban areas.

See related writing by Jean Drèze here: https://www.bloombergquint.com/opinion/an-indian-duet-for-urban-jobs

Notes:

  1. Elements of a possible list can be found at https://cse.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/wp- content/uploads/2019/04/SWI2019_Urban_Job_Guarantee.pdf (a useful complement to this post).

Perspectives on the Proposal:

DUET re-examined - Jean Drèze (Ranchi University)

DUET: Creating a resilient ecosystem for vulnerable populations -  Ishu Gupta, Advaita Rajendra, Ankur Sarin (IIM Ahmedabad)

DUET: Expand to include social protection for informal workers Amit Basole (Azim Premji University), Rakshita Swamy (SAFAR)

DUET: Some practical concerns - Ashwini Kulkarni (Pragati Abhiyan)

DUET: The industrial policy angle - Swati Dhingra (London School of Economics)

DUET: Flexible implementation is key - Yamini Aiyar (Centre for Policy Research)

DUET: Need to keep open mind, pilot cautiously - Sandip Sukhtankar (University of Virginia)

DUET: Weighing the costs and benefits - Farzana Afridi (Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi Centre)

DUET: Learning from the experiences of other countries - Martin Ravallion (Georgetown University)

DUET: Addressing ‘why’ before ‘how’ - Ashok Kotwal (Editor-in-Chief, Ideas for India)

DUET: Decentralise employment generation to urban local bodies - Dilip Mookherjee (Boston University)

DUET: Employment programme in public works in small towns - Pranab Bardhan (University of California, Berkeley)

DUET: Towards employment as a universal right - Debraj Ray (New York University)

5 Comments:

By: Urja

Having read through your proposal, certain add-ons can be deemed useful: 1. Integrate the skills required with Skill India Mission to build a more productive asset. 2. COVID-19 pandemic, hopefully nearing its end, can be utilised to profile the workers and accordingly install sector councils/departments under Placement Agency to make work more stratified and organised. 3. Placing a mechanism to publicise the scheme aggressively and promptly.

By: Ajay Deshpande

Prof Jean Excellent views you shared on DUET ,yes Urban India needs Duet or similar kind of infra to help the jobless in the urban areas too. Congratulations.

By: Sandeep

Dear Jean, I have gone through the Editorial of yours in The Hindu(8th Dec, 2020) and have read the idea on this page as well, I appreciate the points you ponder upon regarding the issue of urban unemployment, this is the need of the hour, meanwhile I would like to know who will be playing the role of "placement agencies," will they be a public institution or any contract linked private entity, if it is on contract basis, then a lot has to be done to formulate laws for these agencies, as they will just work like a broker or a middle man. The workers will also be needed to be taught of the process, we must think upon educating the worker as well. The amount of time spent for the whole process from distributing job-stamps to the salary disbursement is also much needed point to discuss. I hope the idea get tested as a pilot project as soon as possible, good luck!

By: Shivang Bansal

Where are the details of "training" component of DUET?

By: ELEN REJI

The proposal by Jean Drèze in an eye opener. Employment guarantee schemes for the urban areas is a need of the hour.We can also think about integrating both rural and urban employment schemes under the same umbrella in the near future.Such kind of schemes will be very helpful for the unemployed and marginalized in the urban areas.Looking forward eagerly....

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