Will make labour adjust to capital demands, Govt assures foreigners
5 Sept 2015 5:13 AM IST
India is working to create a conducive business environment for sustainable economic growth and various reforms have been undertaken to modernise the labour market, Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said at G20 Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting (LEMM). “We are working on creating a conducive business environment for sustainable economic growth,” Dattatreya was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the Labour Ministry on Friday.
“In this context, a number of labour law reforms have been undertaken to rationalise and modernise the labour market regulations and working conditions so that large excluded segment of workforce can be brought into the ambit of labour regulatory framework and provided with basic labour rights including social security and wages,” he said.
Addressing the G20 LEMM on ‘More Inclusive Labour Markets’ at Ankara, Turkey, he said that India welcomes the focus on inclusive growth and employment generation, acknowledging the urgency of ensuing a job rich growth which is also inclusive, the statement said. The minister said that it is very critical for India that employment policy takes centre stage of development goals and growth strategy in both national and international context.
Further, he said India is committed to usher in a governance of transparency and accountability and securing inclusive growth, leading to sustainable development. India adds about 10 million people every year to the work force so job creation for youth employment is one of the prime focuses of employment policy, Dattatreya said.
He said flagship initiatives taken so far include Make In India, Skill India, Digital India, Smart Cities projects so as to encourage domestic industry and attract large scale global investment. “We look at Make in India as a unique opportunity for job creation in <g data-gr-id="42">formal</g> sector for our youth. We have also embarked on a massive mission of skilling India, particularly youth, to correct and match the demand for skill sets,” he said.
The Labour Ministry is also implementing National Career Service (NCS) project for transforming and strengthening public employment services with an aim to bring job seekers, employers and training providers on a common platform with efficient use of information technology, he added.
NCS is to provide <g data-gr-id="26">employment related</g> services such as career <g data-gr-id="30">counseling</g>, skill development courses, apprenticeship, internships to facilitate online matching of jobs and provide information about opportunities for training and re-skilling.
“Today, NCS is bringing together 1,031 career centers, more than 20.4 million registered job-seekers, 129 career counselors for career guidance, 23,936 skill providers with <g data-gr-id="35">career building</g> courses, 1,684 registered employers with active jobs in 53 sectors,” Dattatreya said. For its huge unorganised workforce, the Minister said India is committed to <g data-gr-id="39">extend</g> financial inclusion and social security to the entire population.
“Lack of social protection to <g data-gr-id="38">unorganised</g> sector is the chief reason for a large proportion of these falling into under-employment and precarious jobs. We are working on providing an umbrella smart card to the unorganised sector workers for all social security schemes available to them,” he said, adding that this move will bring social security coverage for close to 1 billion people.
The government has also launched three ambitious schemes — Atal Pension Yojana, Prime Minister Jeevan Jyoti Yojana and Prime Minister Suraksha Bima Yojana — to provide old age pension, life insurance and accidental insurance for the vulnerable class of workers, Dattatreya said.
Workers’ money spent on babus & ads: SC raps Centre’s shoddy reply
Dissatisfied over government’s reply on the proposed use of a whopping Rs 27,000 crore meant for welfare of construction workers, the Supreme Court on Friday summoned the Labour Secretary to appear in person and apprise it of the plans to spend the money collected through a cess. “We simply wanted to know as to what steps you want to take to spend the money. This is lackadaisical. Ask your Secretary to appear in person on next Friday,” the social Justice bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and <g data-gr-id="171">U U</g> Lalit said. The court termed the approach of the Centre, states and the Union Territories as “casual” and asked them to apprise <g data-gr-id="170">it of</g> their plans on spending the money. It also asked amicus curiae and senior advocate Vivek K <g data-gr-id="92">Tankha</g> to give suggestions on the issue.
Earlier, the counsel for the Government had told the bench that he will discuss the matter with the labour secretary inform it about the steps which would be taken to spend the amount collected. The court had then observed that the governments have “no clue what to do with the thousands of crores that have been collected under the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act, 1996.”
It had said it was “ridiculous” that the money meant for the workers was spent on the ‘babus’ and advertisements. During the previous hearings, the amicus curiae had also said that Rajasthan had collected Rs 588.36 crore but disbursed only Rs 59.45 crores, the details of which were also not available.
“Uttar Pradesh has collected Rs 1580.1 <g data-gr-id="147">crores,</g> but has disbursed Rs 180.79 crores, again the details of this are not available. Finally, the NCT of Delhi has collected Rs.1396.58 <g data-gr-id="146">crores,</g> but has disbursed Rs 39.37 crores and unintelligible details are made available,” the court had said after noting “In
all the other years, the amount disbursed has been less than one crore except in the year 2014-15 when about Rs 1.8 crores have been disbursed,” it had said.
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