Kolkata: Citing Bengal’s ‘Yuva Sathi’ scheme as a blueprint, Trinamool leader in Rajya Sabha Derek O’Brien on Friday pressed for the urgent implementation of a universal basic minimum wage, aimed at addressing India’s growing employment crisis and the stagnation of worker earnings. Under ‘Yuva Sathi’, unemployed youth aged 21 to 40, who have passed Class X, are entitled to a monthly assistance of Rs 1,500 for up to five years or until they find employment.O’Brien made the proposal — Universal Minimum Annual National Guarantee (UMANG) — in the House in the Zero Hour, seeking to establish a single, legally enforceable wage floor below which no worker in India can be paid, regardless of sector, contract type, or location.
O’Brien argued that the national wage floor has effectively stagnated at approximately Rs 176 per day for a decade now, locking millions of workers into a cycle of “working poverty”.O’Brien argued that data showed Bengal had the fifth-lowest unemployment rate in the country at 3.6%, significantly lower than the national average of 4.8%.
