Two important developments prompted this social security analyst to write these few lines to reach the planners, thinkers and social activists both in private and public sector.
One, the Prime Minister reaching out to top industrial leaders along with his senior Cabinet Ministers including RBI Governor etc to review and revive the economy for speedy growth in the backdrop of Chinese economy at downhill.
Second, disturbing telecast in the NDTV Hindi channel during last two days “the plight of migrant workers from UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha staying in pitiable conditions in Delhi-Haryana boarder. While no doubt industrial growth and consequential economic developments are essential for a country like ours but can these be achieved without social security or social insurance for the workers in particular; self employed and senior citizens who had or have been involved in creating these islands of prosperity in agriculture or manufacturing and service sectors etc IJ The plight of workers along with their families as shown in television referred to above are nothing new- staying in large numbers in a tiny room without electricity, water facility and sanitation etc and at workplaces long hours of duties without minimum wage, safety and social security.
In fact one is reminded of serious labour unrest of 2012 in blue chip Maruti Car Factory in Maneshar, Haryana resulting in unfortunate killing of a senior officer of the factory. The most important reason for such unrest brewing for so many years is huge gap in pay and perks between regular and contract workers in the same work floor, result of increasing “ Casualisation of workers in factories and in offices " during last few years.
Take the miserable conditions of migrant workers from all these States of Bihar, Odisha and UP etc in God’s own country Kerala. While the State is having maximum foreign exchange income with each family representative in Gulf countries, it is poor migrant workers from other States who have taken up all domestic or construction related works. Having denied access to sufficient accommodation with other facilities, one can imagine their plight involving working hours, healthcare and social security, besides the cultural and linguistic isolation etc.
If we go through the history of developed countries or even ancient civilizations, it is needless to emphasise that a healthy contended workforce has produced the best economically, besides peace in the society and overall progress for the future. It is in this background, we are repeatedly hearing in all such review meetings, conferences and workshops at public or private forum one consistent constraintm "difficulty due to rigid labour laws and hence call for labour reforms".
Yes, while there is need to relook and relax laws for doing easy business but hard facts are only 120 million of India’s population of 1,250 million are insured and 93 per cent of labour force, which belongs to unorganised informal sector, does not have any social security in the form of healthcare to meet the contingencies of accidents, old age or death. Hence, while talking of labour reforms, time has come to take this talk to next level by benchmarking what in IlO standard to which India is firmly committed "minimum social protection floor" to meet the contingencies of ill health, accident, death and old age.
It is also a fact that social security laws of both the Government of India and State Governments have failed to go beyond organised formal workers. With pathetic services to their existing beneficiaries ( as brought out by Finance Minister in his presentation of Union Budget 2015), we have to look for alternative arrangement for this vast number of unorganised, self employed and senior citizens to assure them social security insurance coverage. Here is an opportunity to achieve this in our country through recently launched " Jan Dhan To Jan Surakhya " schemes.
Three essential features are worth mentioning here of three social security schemes of the Government of India
1. low Premium- Rs 12 for PMSBY (Suraksha Bima Yojana for Accident Benefit up to Rs 2 lakh), Rs 330 for PMJJBY ( life insurance in case of death up to Rs 2 lakh ) and Rs 42 to Rs 210 for APY ( Pension Scheme up to Rs 5,000 )
2. Through Bank Transfer only- No cash transaction to deny risk of pilferage etc.
3. Government Guarantee with continuous monitoring at various levels for low paid workers and insufficient family support for senior citizens.
It is the view of the writer who has been closely working with social security schemes of the Government of India that let all of us who can afford it come forward to ensure coverage of all such uncovered workers and senior citizens in these social security schemes launched by th Central Government. Charity begins at home and in the same analogy, let us start covering our domestic helps like domestic workers, newspaper vendors and Subjiwala from whom on daily basis our families are getting services, besides spreading this message to reach out to others so that sanitary workers and daily wage earners engaged by various shops and municipalities come forward to insure their workers with the help of banks and insurance agencies. This is a national mission and let all corporate houses, trade unions, associations and members of civil society take this as a challenge.
(The writer, a former Insurance Commissioner, ESIC, is now working with Insurance Regulatory Authority of India. He can be reached @ bk_sahu04@yahoo.com.)