Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Shramev Jayate Karyakram which includes a string of labour reforms like a Unified labour Portal or Shram Suvidha, a transparent and accountable labour Inspection Scheme, portability through Universal Account Number (UAN) for Employees’ Provident Fund members and an Apprentice Protsahan Yojana.
Announcing the much-awaited labour reforms, the Prime Minister sought to end ‘Inspector Raj’ stressing that ease of doing business was “essential” to ensure the success of the ‘Make in India’ campaign.
The ‘Shramev Jayate’ (work alone triumphs) programme announced by Modi includes portability through UAN for Employees’ Provident Fund, single window portal to enable doing business with the labour Ministry and labour inspection scheme in the central sphere.
“We have replaced 16 forms (which factory owners had to fill) with one form, which is available online. Now a computer draw will decide which labour inspector will go for inspection to which factory and he will have to upload his report online in 72 hours.
“These facilities are what I call minimum Government, maximum governance. I have been hearing about ‘inspector raj’ since childhood,” Modi said. Explaining his determination to terminate inspector raj and the harassment by officials,
Modi said a transparent labour inspection scheme is being developed to check arbitrariness.
As of now, the units for inspection were selected locally without any objective criteria, the new scheme envisages that serious matters will be covered under the mandatory inspection list.
Pointing out that it was the responsibility of the Government to simplify processes for doing trade, the Prime Minister said: “Ease of business is the first and foremost requirement if ‘Make in India’ has to be made successful. Ease of business is the priority for Make in India.”
Inaugurating the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Shramev Jayate Karyakram organised by the labour Ministry, Modi also reached out to 4.2 lakh ITI students through SMS as he greeted the achievers with ITI degrees in various fields, hailing the undergraduate technical course.
Exhorting people to accord respect to labour and consider labourers as ‘Shramyogi’, he said that society can develop only if the dignity and honour of labour is restored in social life vis-à-vis other white collared jobs.
Noting that it was ironical that while an unemployed graduate in some other course was respected, those from ITIs were looked down upon and they were hesitant to identify themselves due to it.
ITI students apart, about one crore EPFO subscribers also got SMSes regarding portability through UAN and about 6.50 lakh establishments and 1,800 inspectors got SMSes about Unified labour Portal which the Government believes will make for a transparent and accountable labour Inspection Scheme.
The Prime Minister said that this event was different from other launches as the message has reached stakeholders at the same time.
Referring to skill development in the Apprentice Protsahan Yojana that he launched, the Prime Minister said that the country has huge potential to provide manpower to the world, which will require this by 2020. At present there are 2.82 lakh apprentices undergoing training against 4.9 lakh seats.
An initiative to revamp the apprenticeship scheme has been undertaken and the particular scheme will support one lakh apprentices during the period up to March 2017.
Reaching out to the working class, he said that he was keen that the Rs 27,000 crore that was lying unclaimed in PF accounts should be given back to the claimants, arguing that if mobile subscribers get connectivity everywhere they go, why can’t the migrating labour force continue to get PF benefits.
“I have to give back this money to the poor. This Rs 27,000 crore belongs to the poor,” he said even as he took a dig at critics for questioning his vision.
“Those who ask what is Modi’s vision won’t be able to see this because the power of their spectacles has gone up just looking for a vision,” he said.
Maintaining that the Government functions on trust and not doubt, he said that this was the vision behind his Government’s decision allowing self-certification of documents by enterprising youths, who had to run from pillar to post earlier to get their documents attested by officials.