states to exempt a number of establishments from inspection or to
reduce the means for an e ective operational delivery of inspectors.
Clearly, any measures that is leading to exempting or limiting or
reducing the power of labour inspectors would not be considered as in
compliance with the international guidance contained in convention
81 (https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/ ?
p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C081). The
convention 81 on labour inspection has been rati ed by India. There is
an ongoing dialogue between the government of the India and the ILO
supervisory system with respect to the full implementation of that
convention. We can expect that the committee of experts will be
looking very closely at these developments when it will next review the
implementation of convention 81 on labour inspection by India. In the
light of the established position, one can expect that the concern
might be raised in relation to these developments as well.
NMS: How do you look at India’s current performance in
implementation of labour rights when compared to other ILO
members?
CV: It is a very delicate question and very hard to compare. India does
reasonably well if we are looking at rati cation of ILO conventions.
India has rati ed 47 ILO conventions, which is not entirely at the
OECD level of rati cation, but above the average [level] of
participation in the region. If we look closer to what has been rati ed,
one can notice that India has over thirty- ve years, rati ed only four
conventions. We see a slowing down in the rati cations. This is
certainly a dialogue we will be very keen in engaging with India about
what conventions have been rati ed so far and the most modern
instruments adopted by the organisation since then and which could
be of interest to India.
When we look at the implementation and compliance, one can praise
India for having engaged fully with the ILO supervisory system and
engaging in a permanent dialogue with us. Everything starts with
dialogue. That is something India should be commended for,
submitting reports on time and engaging in dialogue with various