ASIA/INDIA - The world of work in India, problems and prospects: Message from Bishops Commission for Labour

Tuesday, 2 May 2006

New Delhi (Fides Service) - The importance of pastoral care for workers, respect for their rights and duties, promotion of social justice were the main issues treated in a Message issued for 1 May, feast of St Joseph the Worker by the Indian Bishops’ Commission for Labour.
The Message recalls “Rerum Novarum” issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, at the time of the great industrial revolution in Europe, a document which denounced discrimination against workers.
The Message deals with the situation of work today in India, the problems and inconsistencies: highly advanced districts and undeveloped rural areas; areas of prosperity and areas of dire poverty.
“Work is essential for the prosperity of individuals, families and communities”, the message notes reminding Catholics of the duty to work to eliminate the gap between rich and poor in India and to guarantee all citizens access to primary goods and promote respect for fundamental rights of every individual, of every race or religion. The message says this situation is the “digital divide”, recalling broken promises in more than a century of history to improve conditions of workers still today abused and exploited, not forgetting the phenomenon of child labour.
These conditions are reserved mainly for non caste people considered the lowest in society who struggle every day just to stay alive. “Education and healthcare must be guaranteed for all”, the message notes, recalling elementary rules of social justice present also in the Social Teaching of the Church, reaffirming the principle of the inalienable dignity of every human person, and therefore every worker. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 2/5/2006 righe 25 parole 251)


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