The Hindu : `Govt. committed to workers' security'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 24, 2002

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`Govt. committed to workers' security'
By P. K. Bharadwaj

NEW DELHI, FEB. 23. Within 24 hours of the Union Cabinet agreeing to changes in ``lay-off'' rules in the private sector, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, suggested his Government's commitment to ``social security for workers'' remains undiluted.

Inaugurating a seminar on ``Evolving a national policy on social security'' organised by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) to mark its golden jubilee, Mr. Vajpayee made it clear that the Government had limitations and it alone would not be able to do enough.

The real answer lay in activating all non-State providers of social security, besides creating incentives and disincentives for large employers in the unorganised sector.

Mr. Vajpayee said ``social security cannot mean exclusively State-funded and State-administered security schemes... It implies a strong and active participation of non- State institutions. The State can play the role of a regulator and facilitator. For the poorest of the poor, the State can also contribute partly to social security schemes which may be run by public and private companies as well as social organisations''.

Dwelling on the plight of the daily wage earners and the unorganised workers, Mr. Vajpayee said that in India long before State provision of social security began, social institutions such as neighbourhood organisations, religious bodies and business houses had been providing succour and emotional support to the distressed. These traditions could help ease the burden on the State as India could not follow the West in the face of urbanisation weakening the joint and extended family bonds.

Earlier, the Union Labour Minister, Sharad Yadav, said his Ministry was considering how to extend social security benefits such as Provident Fund to agriculture workers, construction labour and others in the unorganised sector.

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