THE EROSION OF THE ‘SOCIAL CONTRACT’: A HUMAN RIGHTS CRITIQUE OF INDIA’S NEW LABOUR CODES

AUTHOR – AKANSHA TOPPO, STUDENT AT NATIONAL LAW INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY, BHOPAL MADHYA PRADESH

BEST CITATION – AKANSHA TOPPO, THE EROSION OF THE ‘SOCIAL CONTRACT’: A HUMAN RIGHTS CRITIQUE OF INDIA’S NEW LABOUR CODES, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (3) OF 2026, PG. 642-647, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.

ABSTRACT

The promulgation of the four New Labour Codes—the Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code on Social Security, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020—marks a watershed moment in India’s industrial jurisprudence. While the stated legislative intent is to simplify the labyrinthine complex of 29 central labour laws and foster “Ease of Doing Business,” this paper argues that the consolidation comes at a significant cost to the fundamental human rights of the working class.

This paper adopts a rights-based approach to critique the Codes, analyzing them against the anvil of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Core Conventions and the Constitutional mandate of Article 21 and Article 43. Specifically, it scrutinizes the dilution of the “Right to Strike” under the Industrial Relations Code, the exclusion of millions of informal and gig workers from the mandatory ambit of the Social Security Code, and the potential violation of the “Right to Dignified Work” through increased threshold limits for retrenchment.

The central hypothesis is that the Codes represent a paradigm shift from “State Paternalism” to “Market Facilitation,” effectively rewriting the social contract between the State and Labour. By expanding the discretionary powers of the “appropriate government” to exempt establishments from statutory compliance, the Codes risk reducing labour rights to mere administrative dispensations rather than inalienable human rights. The paper concludes by suggesting a human-rights-centric review of the Codes to balance economic growth with social justice, ensuring that the “Amrit Kaal” of the Indian economy does not become a dark age for its workers.

Keywords: Labour Codes 2020, Human Rights, ILO Conventions, Right to Strike, Social Security, Gig Economy.