Nearly 94% of the workforce in our country is in the non-formal unorganised sector. They have nothing in store for them when they are unable to work after a particular age or in the event of any illness. They are devoid of any pension, healthcare support or educational benefits for the children. They lack proper housing or healthy working environment. With rising unemployment and economic crisis the uncertainty of jobs or means of livelihood always looms large in their mind.

Bhavnish Aggarwal sees happiness in a workman who is always living in physical and mental stress because of meagre income and no social security to fulfil basic needs to thrive. To mention the plight of the catering staff in the prestigious Vande Bharat or Shatabdi Express trains, who get about Rs.12000/- salary per month for nearly 16-18 hours work per day. This means that their salary for an 8 hour work day is about Rs. 6000/- only. They are always under the threat of being fired by the contractor if they raise voice to increase the salary.

That Capitalism thrives on unemployment and under employment is nothing new. But now, two major corporate magnates have come out openly for increasing the working time to 70 hours per week. This means that a worker should be on job for 10 hours per day for all the even days of the week with no holiday or else if he/she wants a holiday he/she has to work for 12 hours in a day for 6 days in a week.

The proposal for 70 hours work week needs to be analysed from various angles; the trade union angle, health angle, social angle and from the angle of impact of technological developments on production.

As a result of long drawn struggle workers were able to get legal right to eight hours of work, eight hours of sleep and the rest eight hours for recreation and the family. The Trade Unions have rejected 70 hours of work per week as it is clearly against the internationally accepted time framework for the workmen.

According to International Labour Organisation (ILO), people in India spend maximum time on work but are paid the least; meaning thereby, that there is too much exploitation of the workers and violation of the law. This is applicable to the organised as well as the un-organised sector. (Indians Work Longest, Earn Least With Virtually No Time for Leisure: ILO Report). India ranks fifth in the world among countries with long working hours. Only Gambia, Mongolia, Maldives and Qatar, where a quarter of the population is Indian, have average working hours longer than in India. According to global data also Indians work maximum but are least paid. Indians earn 20 times less than developed world peers.

There are millions who are working for long hours. Those employed in sweet meat shops or the Gig workers spend long hours on work every day. With the advent of new technological developments, the companies’ production has increased manifold, so is their profit, but the gains have hardly been passed on to the workers.

It is a well-accepted fact that productivity increases if workers are healthy and happy. An exhausted person can never give better production. They are also liable to have more accidents and make mistakes. Due to circadian rhythm, that is to say, our daily biological cycles our organism is unable to be productive for 8 consecutive hours. How our body reacts during the day depends on many factors: our hormones, our diet, our exposure to daylight. Scientists studying these issues have found is that we have a very specific biological rhythm. Thus, we are more productive at certain times of the day, intellectually and physically speaking. So this affects all working manually or on the screens as many young people are doing these days.

According to an article “Are Shorter Working Days The Secret To A Happier, Healthier And More Productive Life?” published in Youmatter on 25th September 2017, ‘being in the office for more than 8 hours a day is associated with poorer overall health and with a 40% higher risk of developing heart disease or stress related diseases’. Scientists generally agree that the ideal daily working time is around 6 hours, and more concentrated in the morning.

According to a study published by Insurance Journal, overworking increases the risk of being injured by 61%. They are also at higher risk of having chronic diseases like Diabetes, Arthritis, and Cancer. Research also reveals the damage to our physical health that overwork can cause. A study from the World Health Organization (WHO) found that working an average of 55 hours or more each week increases your risk of stroke by 35% and your risk of dying from heart disease by 17%, compared to averaging a 35-40 hour workweek. People who work long hours are twice as likely to have a major depressive episode, according to a study, especially if they work more than 11 hours per day. Workplace culture is crucial for keeping employees motivated and satisfied. It's important to create a positive environment and encourage the employees.

The decision makers must realize that without a healthy workforce working in conducive environment and guarantee of safety and health, productivity will be hit badly which will be detrimental to the interests of the country, the society and the employers.

It would be an interesting case study to find out the level of happiness in the workmen who work long hours on meagre wages, as Bhavnish Aggarwal thinks. Mr Narayana Murthy and Bhavnish Aggarwal should have instead talked about workers’ wages as per the inflation and that workers’ wages should match the real profits of the companies. They should have exposed those who are evading taxes and not paying back loans taken from the banks as a result of which the NPA of the banks has increased to 25 lakh crore rupees in the last 10 years and is affecting our economy adversely. To say that workers will be able to think India as their own country only if they work for 70 hours a week is an insult to millions of working people who first fought against the British for our freedom and later put in hard labour for country’s growth even in extremely hazardous conditions on meagre wages. (IPA Service)