Dinesh Kamath's Editorial (Economic progress and social development) that was published in Newsband

Economic progress and social development

Only 20 per cent of the world’s population has adequate social security cover and 50 per cent lack any protection at all, according to the International Labour Organization’s 2010-11 World Social Security Report. The ILO’s new Recommendation on Social Protection Floor sets nationally defined guarantees aimed at universal access to essential health care and minimum income security; especially during old-age, unemployment, work-place injury, invalidity and maternity. Such guarantees are a human right and an ethical imperative of governments.

ILO needs to come up with social protection measures that have the potential to generate demand in the economy, combat poverty, empower the vulnerable and ensure just, inclusive growth. Countries around the world are also committed to realizing the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Of these, those pertaining to basic health, removing illiteracy, maternal and infant mortality are the more critical human development indicators.

While Asian economies boomed before the global recession in 2008, the fruits of that progress did not translate into better wages or secure employment conditions for workers in the region. The International Labour Organisation (ILO)'s Asian Decent Work Decade launched in 2006 was aimed at five priority areas of competitiveness, productivity and jobs; labour market governance; youth employment, managing labour migration and local development for poverty reduction.

Today workers' unions are raising the issue of jobs that are precarious and without any social security, and women by far are worse off. Trade unions are pointing to the unacceptable growing inequality in the region. According to them, there is a need to create quality jobs and reduce short-term precarious employment, he said.

Another area of concern is the 15 billion Asians living outside their countries and this form one-fourth of the world's migrant population. The other issue is the appalling condition of domestic workers and there is an urgent need to ratify and implement the ILO convention on domestic workers. Trade union workers have little protection and in countries like Fiji there are attempts to dismantle unions and harass leaders.

There is 70 per cent of the world’s working poor living in the Asia-Pacific region. While the economy grow fast, the jobs that are created are low paid and informal. Women get only 60 to 70 per cent of the wages men are paid. While multinational companies play a major role in shaping the global economy, they are poor in implementing labour standards. There is a need to rebalance the growth model with emphasis on decent well-paid work and jobs with high labour standards. There should be a minimum wage policy.

The problem is the quality of jobs. The jobs that most of people among the working class are doing today are not jobs at all and such works are damaging to the family and society. Justice is when social development goes hand in hand with economic progress.