Letters

Travails of Workers Today

Conservation is believed to be most effective when people, who depend on a particular resource, are made partners in managing that resource. Instances have favourably recorded the involvement of local people in forests or wildlife after they were accorded a stake in the protection or propagation of the same. The scheduled tribes bill, being currently debated by the government, promises to be the first step in laying the foundation for a more democratic management of forests, essential for both forests and forest communities to survive.

The several political parties espousing the cause of the backwards in UP have played a part in reconfiguring the political agenda in the country and providing a platform for transformative politics. But on important issues, the performance of the backward movement in the state has been less than satisfactory. It has failed to address the issue of 'backward identity' and has been unable to develop a class politics.

In recent times, social scientists have noted the decline of state responsiveness to social claims. There appears an equal decline in the ability of existing structures of representation to provide poorer social groups influence over policy. On the other hand, there is also evidence of a crisis in popular representation in several low- and middle-income countries. Poorer social groups appear to have a limited capacity to present a reform agenda that addresses issues of basic rights and ensures livelihoods. To test this hypothesis, this paper studies sample communities in Delhi, representative of a broad cross section of the population. Through an analysis of the data collected, the study describes and explains patterns of political participation, focusing in particular on ways in which poorer social groups organise, obtain political representation and try to solve collective social problems. It appears, contrary to most expectations, that the needs and interest of poorer people are increasingly being met through the 'new politics' of social movements, the poor in particular still seek to represent themselves and to tackle their problems through political parties.

The corporate sector needs to keep in mind that anti-discrimination measures like reservation are needed for growth as much as equity. It is necessary to emphasise that anti-discrimination policies will not only provide fair and non-discriminatory access to historically excluded and discriminated groups like the dalits, but simultaneously remove constraints imposed by caste discrimination on labour markets, and thereby induce competitiveness and economic growth.