Unions have a role to fight injustice: Amartya Sen

Exhorting unions to play a more proactive role in fighting any form of injustice, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen today said they should work for children without access to nutrition and education. Speaking at the 'Unions and Economic Development' seminar organised by the RBI Employees Association here, he said that injustices were in different forms. Citing the example of school-age children being deprived of nutrition and education, he said, "This is definitely a form of injustice which the unions should address, even if they are not members." Unions do have a role to play in fighting all forms of injustices and had relevance in India, he said. Their adversarial attitude does help in fighting injustice, whether it was specific in the form of dismissal of an employee or as a bargaining agent. In India, Sen said, the perception about unions was polarised, either it could do no wrong or no right. The noted economist also said, "Economic development is held back by exploitation or issues of injustice." "Empirical evidence shows that civil servant's salaries in India have kept pace with the growth of national income of the country, but the rise in rural wages have fallen way behind," he said. In China, the rise in rural wages had been six to seven times higher than that of India, which "is an important issue of injustice," he added.