Empirical study of working conditions of labour in gutka industry in Kanpur city

Labour is an important factor of production. It is the main component of the conversion process which converts other components into final outcome. The working condition of the workplace is one of the important factors of labour satisfaction that leads to high productivity. General conditions of work can be defined as, people's experience of work. Each country has defined its minimum standards for working conditions but most of the needs of improvement are not included from the scope of existing labour protection measures.

The Indian labour market can be categorized into three sectors, i) rural workers who constitute about 60% of the work force, ii) organized or the formal sector, that constitutes about 8% of the work force and iii) urban unorganized or informal structure, which represents 32% of the work force.

The productivity of labour is an essential condition for the prosperity of enterprises and the well being of the workers and their families. Wages and salaries in cash, kind and social security benefits are important factors of labour productivity. Working condition of labour is one of the major contributing factors of the labour productivity. As per The Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970 the interest of contract workers are protected in terms of wages, hours of work, welfare, health and social security.

Gutka industry holds major proportion of industrial sector in Kanpur city after tannery. Thus, the paper attempts to analyse the working condition of labour of Gutka industry for broader aspects of working condition of labours such as types of labour, working hours, rest hours, facilities provided during the night shifts, overtime and wage rates for the normal work and for the overtime. The safety and security aspect, medical facilities to handle the casualties and occupational diseases are also covered in the study. The research is based on primary data collection from various units.