At a ceremony held at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, the ILO's tripartite partners in India - Government of India, employers' and workers' organizations signed the Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) document for India. Mr P C Chaturvedi, Secretary, Labour & Employment, Government of India, Mr N.M. Adyanthaya, Workers' Member, ILO Governing Body, Mr Y.K. Modi, Employers' Member ILO Governing Body and Ms Leyla Tegmo-Reddy, Director, Subregional Office for South Asia were the signatories to the document.

DWCP-India covers a 5-Year period and is aligned to India's 11th 5-Year Plan. It is time-bound, results-based and focused. The joint programme of action places ILO’s knowledge and instruments at the service of the constituents, policy-makers and other stakeholders in order to advance India's vision of faster and inclusive growth and the DW agenda.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Chaturvedi reiterated that "the document provides a perfect framework to achieve the common objectives of providing decent work". Ms Leyla Tegmo-Reddy said that DWCP "will strengthen our partnership and impact people's lives, especially those who are most disadvantaged".

The DWCP-India and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2008-12 are also aligned with similar themes of social, economic and political inclusion.

Formulated after a process of consultations with the tripartite partners on priority areas for ILO action DWCP-India focuses on three priorities with social dialogue & strengthening of partners, informal economy and gender equality as the cross-cutting themes.

Opportunities enhanced for productive work for women and men, particularly for youth and vulnerable groups, especially through skills development.

DWCP-India has 4 outcomes:

* Decent and productive employment integrated into socio-economic policies through policy/action research;

* Comprehensive approaches developed to address decent and productive work in selected sectors and States, with emphasis on women workers;

* Social protection policies/programmes formulated and progressively extended; and

* Strengthened policy framework for elimination of unacceptable forms of work.