Labour Politics Poem by Asit Kumar Sanyal

After the start of economic reform
In 1991
We saw many new things
In our country
Flexible service sector
Contractual form of employment
Growth of informal sector
Work from home
On-line service
Foot-loose labours
And many other things
It influenced existing labour politics
Made a shift.

Traditional trade unions
Loosed their grips
Membership declined
Lost relevance
Became ineffective
And ceded ground
to informal groupings
Trade unions are not relevant now
Not connected to main politics
Almost detached
The classical paradigm of labour politics
Shifted to vernacular discourse
in the surrogate organisations.