Then came the implementation of a massive goods and services tax, adding up to 28 percent to the cost of over 1,300 goods, including life-saving prescriptions and 500 services.
This was closely followed by the attack on fundamental labor rights, wages, and social protection with proposed changes to the labor legislation which will see the return of child labor, growing informality of work, poverty wages, and slavery.
Joining street protests on January 8-9 with Indian workers from all sectors — farmers; teachers; port, bank, electricity and transport workers, as well as informal workers such as street vendors and taxi drivers — I was shocked to witness the depths of anger and despair.
The impact of a string of broken promises by Modi and his government is palpable. With more than 200 million people unemployed and the massive exclusion of young workers, people are losing hope. In a country where more than half the population are under 25, this is not a ticking time bomb; this is a jobs crisis of today.
I heard stories of formal jobs being rendered informal by the exclusion of workers from labor laws, in a country where 93 percent of workers are in the informal economy and only 7 percent are in decent work. The threat of an informal economy on a country’s tax revenue makes you ask the question: “why?”
I saw the heartbreak of poverty wages on which families cannot live with dignity and where the call for a national minimum wage of just US$270 a month is being denied. It is a clear threat to economic growth if workers cannot afford to buy goods and services and makes you ask the question, “why?”
And there are the escalating costs for farmers in particular, who get less and less for their products, thus threatening their livelihoods. Without these farmers, the backbone of rural India, a food crisis would surely emerge.
Most of all, I saw fear – fear of a future where the destruction and privatization of existing social protection mechanisms, despite promises for universal coverage, have left people without hope. Why would a government do this to its people and its economy?