Dear Friends,

This is further to our circular dated 17th June' 2005 giving you a summary of the 5th May' 2005 Rally of Unorganised Sector Workers to Parliament to submit the Petition of over one million workers to the Petition Committee of Lok Sabha through the Speaker and other related meetings. We had also informed you about the Rozgar Adhikar Yatra. Only a few constituents of NCC-USW could participate in the Rozgar Adhikar Yatra at Bhopal, Nagpur and at the Jan Munch on Employment Guarantee Act at Delhi on 2nd July 2005. If the Bill is not presented in the Parliament by mid August, then the Peoples Action for EGA will plan to organize dharna/ hunger strike before the Parliament.

1. National Advisory Councils Draft Unorganised Sector Workers Social Security Bill, 2005
A twelve page outline of the above proposal with seven chapters and 34 sections is available on the NAC website under - Communications to Government for comments. It is soon likely to be available on the website of the Ministry of Labour, Govt. of India. On behalf of NCC-USW. Sh. T. S. Sankaran is preparing a detailed note on the background of Social Security Legislation for Unorganised Sector Workers. Soon this will be available for circulation.

We urgently need to mobilize nationwide consensus on a Comprehensive Central Legislation to provide Social Security and Labour Welfare to the 37 crores of Unorganised Sector Workers. NCC-USW had prepared a Proposal Bill after nationwide discussion during 2004-05 and the same was submitted to the Prime Minister by Justice V.R. K. Iyer along with his letter of 13th May 2005.

During January and March this year, the National Centre of Labour (NCL) organised two National Consultations at Delhi to finalize a Comprehensive Bill for the workers in the Unorganised Sector. At the first meeting during 12th - 13th Jan' 2005, the NCL Bill was discussed and NCC-USW Bill was also circulated. At this meeting, an Expert Committee was formed to merge these two bills and this Committee meet at Chennai on 22nd - 23rd Feb' 2005. The second Consultation on 2nd and 3rd Mar' 2005 at Delhi was to finalize the main concepts and the Expert Committee was to meet again at Chennai to finalize the merging of the two Bills. This meeting, however, could not be held. Instead, a Draft Bill finalized at Delhi was submitted to the Labour Minister on 4th March 2005.

Similarly, SEWA had also prepared a Bill for Unorganised Sector Workers which we had already discussed at the earlier meetings of NCC-USW. We had a preliminary meeting with Ms. Renana Jhabawala and agreed to prepare for a formal meeting with SEWA to plan a joint campaign for a comprehensive Bill for Social Security Legislation.

We regret that inspite of regular meetings with the Central Trade Union Leaders before the 5th May 2005 Rally, they jointly decided to absent themselves from the Rally and only HMS representatives participated in the Rally. In subsequent meetings of the Sponsoring Committee of Trade Unions and in the National Convention on 9th July 2005, "the demand for Comprehensive Legislation on service conditions and Social Security for Unorganised Sector Workers and Agricultural Workers with adequate funding and effective monitoring" was given the first place. The second place was given to" demand suitable amend/ change the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill to ensure employment guarantee to the rural and urban unemployed with a time frame in line with commitment made in National Common Minimum Programme". We hope that our efforts of form unity with all the Central Trade Unions will succeed before our next national programme. We are sure that our state level meetings will help in forming the national level unity. .

2. State Meetings of Unorganised Sector Workers
i. In Karnataka two meetings of the Unorganised Sector Workers were held on 9th July 2005 and 30th July 2005 at the initiative of NAPM. The next meeting is to be held on 16th Aug 2005. We request all constituents of NCC-USW and NCC-CL in Karnataka to participate in the next meeting.

ii. In Tamilnadu, the Unorganised Workers Federation will meet on 8th August 2005 from 10 am to 5 p.m. to discuss the NAC Bill & Ministry of Labour Bill in the meeting, the draft of NCC-USW draft Bill, Tsunami work, and that General council to elect the office bearers of the Unorganized Workers Federation will also be discussed.

iii. In Kerala, SEWA -Kerala is convening a meeting on 12th August at Shikshak Bhawan near the Junction Railway Station at Kochi, to discuss the three Bills of Unorganised sector Workers. We request the constituents of NCC-CL also to support the NCC Unorganised Sector Worker meeting by participating in the meeting. Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer has been invited to this meeting and S. Bhatnagar, Geetha R. both the coordinators of NCC-USW will also participate in the Tamil Nadu meetings of 8th August 2005, at Chennai and the Kerala meeting on 12th August at Kochi.

3. People's Summit against Poverty
A People's Summit against Poverty is being organised by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan on September 3rd - 4th '2005 at Ramlila Ground, New Delhi. Around 10,000 National and International delegates are expected to attend this summit from India and Asia. Events planned for the two days include "Releasing of a Shadow Report on MDGs' People's Summit and Poverty Concert by A.R. Rehman. All the NCC-USW who can participate in this Summit are requested to confirm on or before August 13, 2005 to the Summit Secretariat, Gandhi Peace Foundation, 221-223 Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, New Delhi-110002. Phone: 91-11- 23237491, 23237492. Fax: 91-11-23236734.
(Email): wadanatodoabhiyan@yahoo.co.in; indumanav@yaqhoo.com;
(Website): www.wadanatodoabhiyan.net

4. Appeal for Contribution to meet the Expenses of 5th May 2005 Rally
Only a few people contacted us in response to our Appeal for contribution to meet the deficit of over two lakh rupees of 5th May Rally expenses. We will now be sending individual appeals to selected organizations to meet this deficit. We request you once again to please contribute as an organization and also on behalf of the participants from your organization as much as possible to meet this deficit, by Cheque/ DD in the name of "NATIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE FOR UNORGANISED SECTOR WORKERS".

All the constituents are requested to inform us of their campaign activities during last month. We expect Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal to organize State Committees and place for National Convention in during next session of Parliament to seek response to our Petition to the Petition Committee of Parliament. A final decision on the National Convention will be taken at the next meeting of NCC-USW at Kochi on 12th Aug' 2005 with Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer.