Under one umbrella

One of the earliest enactments of independent India concerning social security was the 'ESI Act' in 1948. The Section 1(5) of the ESI Act provides for an extension of provisions of social security provided by this Act to any such establishments or class of establishments which may be related to industrial, commercial, or agricultural or otherwise. The intention of the policymakers and visionaries of India at the time of Independence was very clear. They all had envisioned that the welfare and social security of all kinds of labourers, farmers, peasants, agricultural workers, industrial workers should be ensured, in preference. However, we have somehow lost this vision of providing social security to the farmers & agricultural workers in the course of the last 70 years.

Social security

International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines social security as the protection that a society provides to individuals and households to ensure access to health care and to guarantee income security, particularly in cases of old age, unemployment, sickness, invalidity, work injury, maternity or loss of a breadwinner. India has more than 600 social security schemes or programmes for providing these social security benefits to different types of workers or different sections of our population.

Security for farming sector

In the farming sector, the difference between the employer and employee or the worker is very thin. Many times, the farmer himself is the employer and also is an agricultural worker. Even if a middle-level farmer employs four-five agricultural workers, then also he himself or the family members have to work along with other agricultural workers in his fields. So schemes like ESI and EPF needs to be revamped to suit the requirements of the farmers, also. The 'ESI Act' and the 'EPF Act' require a relationship between the employer and the employee. But the farming sector does not have such a clear cut relationship of employer and employee.

Apart from this, there is no fixed employability for rural and agricultural workers. Hence, the schemes like MGNREGA have come to the rescue. The MGNREGA ensures a hundred days of employment to at least one member of each defined family in rural areas. In this way, the exigency of unemployment has been restricted by this wage security scheme.

Financialisation of schemes

Generally, the social security systems worldwide are financed by contributions from the employers, the employees and also sometimes from the government. Most successful schemes in India like ESI and EPF are also contributed by employers and employees.

As widely believed that in India, the farming sector is given lots of subsidies. Ujjwal Kumar is an international level policy expert about farming products, marketing & trade policies, who himself has worked practically as a farmer. He says – "At present in sum it's negative subsidy i.e., farmers are paying from their pockets to feed Indian consumers. This came out in an OECD-ICRIER study, which was officially used by Government of India in the WTO, to counter an allegation that it gives too much subsidy. It is a myth that farmers are given subsidies." Therefore, it becomes our duty to have a thriving social security scheme for agricultural workers fully financed by the government.

Present scenario

Different state governments in India have some social security schemes for the farming sector. The Government of Gujarat has implemented the 'Farmer's Accidental Insurance Scheme' since January 26, 1996, to provide insurance coverage to the registered farmers in case of accidental death or permanent disability. This scheme is 100 per cent sponsored by the State Government. In this scheme, the insurance premium is paid by the State Government for all farmers. The main objective of the scheme is to assist the successor of the registered farmer, including all children (son/daughter) of the registered farmer and the husband/wife of the registered farmer in case of death or disability due to accident.

The Government of Maharashtra has been running a scheme since November 24, 2015, called the 'Gopinath Munde Farmers Accident Insurance Scheme' for farmers in the State. The scheme covers victims of accidental death and those who have been left handicapped by an accident. Farmers in the age group of 10-75 years whose names have been registered on 7/12 land extracts are eligible to avail the scheme. The accidents shall also cover death or disability caused due to animal attacks, Naxal attacks, murder, electric shocks etc.

The Kerala Government has a Social Security Scheme for the agricultural workers which on one side provides pension and on other side accident-related benefits in case of death and disability of the insured person. Just like this, the Government of Uttar Pradesh and others are also running such farmers accident insurance schemes.

The Central Government has implemented a direct transfer income assurance scheme for the land-owning farmers, namely, the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN). Under the Scheme, an amount of Rs 6,000 per year is transferred in three quarterly instalments of Rs 2,000 directly into the bank accounts of the farmers, subject to certain exclusion criteria relating to higher-income status. The scheme was initially implemented for the small and marginal farmers' families only with a total landholding up to two hectares. The Government reviewed the scheme and extended its purview to all farmers, irrespective of the size of their landholding.

Further, Government launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maan Dhan Yojana (PM-KMY) intending to provide social security to small and marginal farmers in their old age when they have no means of livelihood and minimal or no savings to take care of their expenses. Under this scheme, a minimum fixed pension of Rs 3,000 is provided to the small and marginal farmers, subject to certain exclusion criteria, on attaining the age of 60 years. It is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme, with an entry age of 18 to 40 years. The farmer is required to contribute between Rs 55 to Rs 200 per month to a pension fund depending on the entry age. The Central Government also contributes in equal amounts to the pension fund.

The Government of India launched the 'Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana' (PMFBY), a flagship scheme for insuring the crops of farmers in 2016, after the scrapping of earlier crop insurance schemes such as the 'Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme', the 'Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme' and the 'National Agricultural Insurance Scheme'. In February 2020, the Union Cabinet approved the revision of PMFBY. The scheme has been made voluntary for the farmers after amending the existing parameters. The revised standards were implemented across the country from the Kharif 2020 season onwards. Annual commercial/annual horticultural crops, oilseeds and food crops (cereals, millet, and pulses) etc., are covered under this scheme. The scheme aims to provide support for sustainable production of products in the agricultural sector. Financial assistance is provided to farmers in distress due to loss and damage to crops due to unexpected disasters. The income of the farmers is stable for them so that they can continue their farming activities.

For a 'secured' tomorrow

The ideal situation will be to have a comprehensive social security program for all the workers in the agricultural sector as well as for the farmers themselves. Such social security programmes must cover all the exigencies as enumerated by the ILO, which are death, disability, sickness, health, employment injury and unemployment. Such programmes also must have a widespread infrastructure at the grassroots level for the dissemination of the benefits of social security, till the last leg. It should be separated from the office of district magistrate or the collector who are overburdened with so many other welfare programmes. This ideal situation should provide a complete package of social protection as are required to be provided by the ESI scheme and the provident fund scheme to the industrial and commercial working class so that the workers in the farming sector are not left alone to fend themselves at the times of exigencies in their life.

The writer is Additional Commissioner in ESIC, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt of India. Views expressed are personal