Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Right to work

Sir, — This refers to the article, "A workable right to employment" (Aug. 24). The inalienable right to life includes the right to work. Gandhi wrote to Rabindranath Tagore as early as 1921 that the only way God can appear before the hungry masses is in the form of work.

An employment guarantee scheme or any poverty alleviation programme will be deemed a success if it is self-liquidating — that is the need for it diminishes with each passing year.

For this, the EGS should be open to all without any means test. And there should be an unfailing adherence to the principle of a decent proportion of wage as compensation for the days for which employment is not provided.

M.C. Swaminathan,
Hyderabad

* * *

Sir, — While it is easy to elucidate the various points needed to implement a scheme, the challenge lies in executing them.

It is the implementation that becomes the casualty, given our socio-economic conditions and the functioning of our bureaucracy. Anyway the proposal is a step in the right direction.

Yugal Joshi,
New Delhi

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