By Gopabandhu Mohapatra
After hard work or a hectic schedule, everyone deserves rest or holiday, for recuperation or to get rejuvenated to work afresh. Apart from this a holiday is intended to allow individuals to celebrate or to commemorate an event or tradition of cultural or religious significance.
We find in government Schools, there are several holidays and more particularly, a long summer vacations after the results are declared. If we calculate, in a School, the Holidays and vacation taken together comes around six month in a year. As such, the studies in classes are not sufficient to cover the syllabus/ course designed for the year. This compels the parents to send the student to coaching or tuitions.
On the other hand, in private Schools the holidays and vacations are somewhat restricted. After the results are declared, they go for the next year course and then allow for the summer vacation.
Similar situation also prevails in Judiciary. Since British days, when there was no Air-Conditioned chambers, to avoid scorching heat, there used to be a summer vacation for about 45 days. It spreads from middle of May to end of June. Added to that about 40 days of religious festivals and holidays. If you take into consideration, Saturday and Sundays in the year, the Judiciary hardly functions for about six months in a year.
However, even during vacations, the judges catch up on pending judgement work. They prepare judgments based on hearings already done earlier. But the advocates get holiday and the clients face difficulty in filing new cases.
Vacation may very well help to rejuvenate. It may very well give the sagging spirits a boost. But it is still prima facie unreasonable for the Indian Judiciary, to go on long vacations even as the number of pending cases before them sky rocket. Keeping in view the number of cases pending for disposal and with the introduction of Mechanization systems, there needs to be a change in the vacation system.
The Law Commission of India on Judicial Reforms addresses this issue. They recommended:
– Due to the high rate of pendency of cases and the tendency of the lawyers to seek adjournments on flimsy grounds, the time allotted for court holidays should be re-evaluated.
– The vacation period of the entire Judiciary, starting with the Apex Court — should be shortened.
Let us now consider the holidays enjoyed by government and public sector employees. The present trend in most of the organisations is “Five day a week”. Already the RBI and Central Government employees work only five days in a week. But in some PSUs, you get only 2nd Saturdays. Banks however get 2nd and 4th Saturday. Recently Odisha Government has also declared 4th Saturday as holiday. With at least 15 standard holidays towards various religious or commemorative activities, the total holidays ranges up to four months in a year. That means the needy public, for whom we work are kept at a bay on these days.
In spite of all these holidays, there has been a demand for “Five day a week”, at the cost of some increase in the Office hours, as an alternative. Once these demands are considered, the next demand will not be far off, when the employees will demand “let me work from home” like private sectors employees. Nevertheless, there is a significant proportion of jobs that need different hours, and flexible contracts and the option for working from home are growing too.
Over and above, already arguments have started floating about the benefits of a four-day working week. This in turn ensures a happier, less stressed, and more mentally engaged workforce, who, in theory produce the same amount of work because less time is wasted whilst they are in the office.
When the whole employment generation is to serve the people and to sort out their difficulties, by decreasing the number of days and increasing the number of office hours is it at all going to help in the output. The public, who wants his work or difficulties to be redressed, goes on moving around the office. Moreover, there are occasions, when office runs in morning hours during summer season and the citizen, who wants to get his work done, finds it difficult to reach within the office hours. With the working condition in the Offices having improved with Fans, lights and even air conditions, does it still require morning office.
If Frank Tyger’s quote “When you like your work every day is a holiday” is to be believed, we should come back to the old theory of monthly one 2nd Saturday only and reduces the good number of holidays and vacations.
Mr. Gopabandhu Mohapatra is a retired banker and writes on a variety of subjects with a focus on Banking and Finance. He can be reached at [email protected]
But usually we are made “used to” to work instead of “love to” work.
It is so because we weren’t in a profession or a work according to our likes, might be of any reasons.
By reading this, I came to know about the holiday systems of a govt organisation.
Exactly increasing the office hours will be really very effective.
Now 5 days in a week is consider as working days but time starts with 9-10 from morning to 9-10 till night,in almost every sector means almost 10-12 hours everyday ,how could someone enjoy or love to work in this situation.
So the old theory is always welcome.