RAJASI GUHAROY, Author at Adamas University

Introduction

“If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already.”
– -Abraham Lincon, LETTERS of 1855.1

Advocacy has often been regarded as a noble profession since time immemorial and is often looked upon high as a profession of the nobles and elites. However, the actual refers to the definition provided by renowned Jurist, Roscoe Pound that lawyers are regarded as “social engineers” and they function as the solider of a countries Constitution, Law, Rules and Regulation. In order to bring out the best of lawyers among young minds, a critical role is played by the law schools that mould young minds to professional think tanks in order to carve out a legal career which is successful, reliable and established.

One very pertinent question which strikes the idea and thinking of young mind is “Why should one take the law” or “what are the future scopes of legal studies”. It is often difficult to give a comprehensive answer to it as the field of law is dynamic and diverse. If we take a close scrutinised look, the art of “lawyering” gained a huge attraction since the latter half of British colonial rules till the post-independence time. The noble profession of Judiciary is also an enormous career scope, establishing it as one of the most robust Constitutional posts of the country. Other professions like advocacy also gained attention and interest of young and professional mind who were interested in pursuing a career in the law field. Another scope lies in the arena of academics and research. Till the beginning of the 21st century, this stood out to be the main scope of the legal profession. However, since the past few years, this field has been viewed in a broader aspect, and it is giving a range of exploration in the dynamic field of adventure, learning and career prospect. Even a few years ago, clients with a legal matter had essentially two options. Either they used to send it to a traditional law firm or handle it in-house. Today, society demands more choices. Thus, there has been progress in the legal professional field, which is attempting to keep up to the development which has been the fruit of growing globalisation and changing scenario of the societal structure.

1. http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/law.htm

To note down a few of such result, there has been the introduction of the concept of “Legal Entrepreneurship”, “Law journalism”, “policy analyst”, “law content creator”, “legal tech.”

“The new age of Legal Entrepreneurship.”

There prevailed an age-old myth that the lawyers are the biggest anti-business proponents and even been considered as the trouble makers in the path of treasure making of high turnover business tycoons. However, the practical scenario of current time shows a contradictory picture, the lawyers have turned out as successful business persons, and many of them also make out to the Forbes Magazine and is efficient business tycoons. Several CEO and owner of highest turnover business establishment of India are either practising lawyer or are having a law degree or had any experience of practising law earlier. Law provides with a more exceptional approach. Being a lawyer gives a functional involvement of industries and business. Practising law gives the idea of risks, consequences and teaches how to tackle those. One can find a lot of collective skills between an entrepreneur and a lawyer. Thus, starting up entrepreneurship with a legal experience works as a helping hand and creates advancements. The ability of convincing, foresightedness, research ability, market knowledge, leadership, risks taking ability, self-assessment and striving for betterment are the typical qualities of both lawyer and an entrepreneur. Moreover, the current legal field lacks and calls for such leadership and having legal knowledge acts as a support to entrepreneurship.

Journalism:
Legal studies and journalism might sound as a divergent field, but it has lots in common. Journalism has to cover work and news by policymakers, deal with people representatives and are there from the time of election to societal and economic deterioration. The very concept of human rights of journalist and news media is backed up and sanctioned by law. Moreover, there are several branched news media and mainstream news media which deals solely or partly with legal factor news. Having a law degree makes it convenient to pursue journalism, in accordance with the rules of PTI. Law graduates exclusively do not need to have a degree or diploma in journalism in order to learn the craft of journalism. The qualities of proactiveness, probing, argumentative and strong logical reasoning are some of what
journalism needs. The legal field already pursues these features. However, India lacks in having specialised media in the legal area as compared to its counterpart USA and UK.

Policy Analysis:
It is often found that lawyer or law students have a critical view regarding legal policies. They are of the opinion that the most of the laws, rules and regulation which have been enacted about quite a years ago have loopholes or are stagnant and needs to be changed with transformation of the society. A policy analyst’s work deals with framing the policy, seeking for its changes, staying updated with the laws or framing of new legislation. The function of the policy analyst is a form of administration of policy-making and rules and regulatory framework for the country.

Several organisations, such as Vidhi Center of Legal policy, NIFPF, are the authorities who have been bestowed with the responsibility to recruit policy analyst, regulate and lays down the ways of functioning. Other than that, there are several advocacy firms which recruit policymakers in policy-making tasks like PLC and Dua.

These organisations recruit lawyers and fresh graduates with law degrees. Law and policies go hand in hand, and a lawyer is having one of the best pieces of knowledge about administrative functioning. The lawyers are best equipped with various tools of planning and understand legislations, and this makes them the most suitable for the job of a policy analyst.
Legal Tech Law firms are increasingly under cost and time pressure from their clients as the clients are frequently guided by sophisticated in-house counsel. Thus, those counsels are becoming more demanding gradually and even more scrutinous of bills. Simultaneously, there has been a massive advancement of technology, and it is the time for the legal field to adapt to technology. It is alarming to note that only about 46% of people have access to the legal system. There is an enormous backlog in most of the court systems. As we are aware that litigation is time-consuming and expensive, technology can be utilised to assist in respect of this issue and make the court a service instead of a place as we move legal resolution online.
In a digital society, there must be an opportunity to institute extended courts where we can go beyond judgments given by judges to some kind of advanced online diagnostic system to guide people regarding their legal options, how to collect evidence and provide alternative approaches for dispute resolution.

Conclusion
The coming in the existence of the above concepts is indeed a great leap of progress in the legal field. Today, the career prospect of this field is not limited only to advocacy and judiciary. Instead, it has taken a wide-angle to this profession. Thus, it is upon the future lawyers to make these concepts a reality in India and prosper in the respective arenas.

Introduction:
Inter-State Migrant workers are “those people who belong to Lower Income Group and move from their state of origin to another state, within the boundaries of India, in search of jobs which give them high wages, better quality of life, better facilities & other push & pull factors that contribute to the reasons of their migration”. However, these migrant workers mainly form an unorganized sector of the country. The unorganised sector of workers includes several categories of workers
working in contractual or daily pay basis. These workers receive a day-based salary or a periodic non-permanent salary of minimal value thus not having much to be called as a saved amount, furthermore they lack a proper secured saving scheme to the section of informal labour.

Plight of Migrant Workers
The lockdown declared at 24th March, 2020 at the widespread national scenario is a boon of prevention from pandemic spread but the question of tackling situation of the informal workers yet remains unanswered. The loopholes in several policies and difference in policies in between states also keeps the situation and condition of the migrant worker to unassurance. The lack of earning and proper facilities in the migrant working places had created panic and anxiety among several migrant workers who are demanding to return back to their home states as they are being
much neglected and their basic necessity are not been looked after. An adverse picture of the same was seen at two hi-tech cities, Delhi and Mumbai in the area of Anand Vihar and Bandra where millions of migrant workers crowded in panic and anxiety with the demand to return back to their own home states.

Relevant law in this respect
It is pertinent to mention here that there exists certain international convention which provides certain rights of migrant workers. For instance, Article 8 of International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families provides that migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right at any time to enter and remain in their State of origin.1 Moreover Article 7 lays down the standards regarding non-discrimination of migrant workers by stating that “States Parties undertake, in accordance with the international instruments concerning human rights, to respect and to ensure to all migrant workers and members of their families within their territory or subject to their jurisdiction the rights provided for in the present Convention without distinction of any kind such as to sex, race, colour, language, religion
or conviction, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, nationality, age, economic position, property, marital status, birth or other status.”2 The Constitution of India in fact under Article 23(2) lays down the same right against exploitation.3 Section 17 of the Inter State Migrant
Workmen Act 1979 mandates the liability of the contractors in payment of wages.4

However, all these provisions have become stagnant due to the present outbreak. There has been very less attention paid to the condition of this labour workforce regarding their basic needs. Furthermore, the condition got worse by the lesser transport facilities and sealing of interstate
border areas. There has been no proper livelihood any longer due to lockdown. If there were any facilities available for savings, it would have been easier for the workers to utilize this in this difficult situation. The reason for which they migrated i.e. better earnings and security has become
a bane for their present existence.

Conclusion
1 Article 8 of International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/cmw.pdf
2 Article 7 ibid.
3 Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from imposing compulsory service for public purpose, and in imposing such service the State shall not make any discrimination on grounds only of religion, race, caste or class or any of them
4 Section 17. Responsibility for payment of wages. – (1) A contractor shall be responsible for payment of wages to each inter-State migrant workman employed by him and such wages shall be paid before the expiry of such period as may be prescribed.
(2) Every principal employer shall nominate a representative duly authorised by him to be present at the time of disbursement of wages by the contractor and it shall be the duty of such representative to certify the amounts paid as wages in such manner as may be prescribed.
(3) It shall be the duty of the contractor to ensure the disbursement of wages in the presence of the authorised representative of the principal employer.
(4) In case the contractor fails to make payment of wages within the prescribed period or makes short payment, then the principal employer shall be liable to make payment of the wages in full or the unpaid balance due, as the case may be, to the inter-State migrant workman employed by the contractor and recover the amount so paid from the contractor
either by deduction from any amount payable to the contractor under any contract or as a debt payable by the contractor.

In the present scenario, it is the responsibility of the Government of India to issue directions in this respect. The Government has in fact issued guidelines that stranded people can return to their home towns after undergoing strict medical screening both at the source and destination cities. States must also organize thermal testing units and quarantine facilities for all those who are stranded, in order to clear asymptomatic cases, before sending them back. However, the movement of migrants,
tourists and students will be restricted to non-containment zones. Consequent to the guidelines, there has been reports of trucks being packed by migrant workers and being pushed to state limits.

There has also been reports of migrant workers moving to their own hometown by riding cycles all day and night as they felt they are more secure in their villages with their friends and relatives rather than being stranded in an unknown environment with ruthless neighbours.

The Government of India thus is expected to take immediate appropriate measures to provide this migrant labourers wages for the period during which they are deprived of their work and consequent wages from the employers. It is not only a temporary measure but the Central Government should enact a law so that they along with their families are protected from the loss of wages for at least coming six months till the emergency period in India is withdrawn. In fact, the ultimate concern exists in the fact that migrant workers should be given a secure employment conditions and wages so that they no longer be pushed to this extreme in days to come.

Author: RAJASI GUHAROY

THE EMERGING ARENA OF LEGAL PROFESSION

COVID-19 LOCKDOWN AND MIGRANT WORKERS IN INDIA