Govt of India seeks to "water down" social security for unorganized sector workers

Even as the Government of India is planning to come up with the Labour Code on Social Security and Welfare Bill, 2018, several Gujarat-based trade unions and NGOs working in different unorganized sectors held a meeting at Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad, on January 3, 2019, to analyze it’s provisioned, pointing towards how it is a step in the wrong direction in the name of labour reforms. Organized by Bandhkam Mazdoor Sangathan (BMS), the one-day consultation suggested that the Government of India is seeking to water down the present welfare schemes for the unorganized sector. 

It is the third revised draft Social Security Code. It has been revised in the name of reform, but the basic concept of having one welfare board at the state level and one national board has been further watered down by turning them into advisory boards. Many of ills of the previous drafts continue. Even though the proposal to repeal Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) and Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) Acts has been dropped, 11 labour welfare laws, including two Building and other Constriction Workers Welfare (BOCW), Acts, 1996, are being repealed. 

Source: Counter View