National Conference on Labour
A two-day national conference on labour was organized in the state of Odisha, in partnership with the ILO, highlighting issues relating to welfare of construction workers, child labour and bonded labour.
Honourable Chief Minister, Odisha, Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the National Conference on Labour at Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Panudda Boonpala, Director, ILO Decent Work Team for South Asia and Country Office for India, opened the dialogue by saying that this conference is of strategic value and is a first-of-its kind national meeting that facilitates interaction and brainstorming between ministers of state, labour unions and union ministers on topics of national significance such as – construction workers, inter-state migrant workers, child labour and bonded labour.
Union Minister of Labour and Employment, Bandaru Dattatreya, spoke how construction workers need skilling, wage security, benefits like health, insurance, accommodation, decent working conditions among others. And how The Building and Other Construction workers (regulation of employment and conditions of service) Act, 1996 was put in place with this spirit. He spoke firmly on respective state governments utilizing the CESS collected under the BOCW Welfare CESS Act. “The supreme court has made a strong observation in which the CESS amount which is collected, about 27886 crores, and the spent amount is only 5800 crores. This means approximately 22056 crores are unspent and in the possession of various state governments.” He also minced no words in saying that few states are including other workers as beneficiaries of this fund.
This fund, he said, is exclusively for the benefit of the construction workers. “Supreme Court observations are on four topics: education, health social security and skill development. On these topics the court has pointed out that more needs to be done. However, some state governments are spending this fund by distributing cycles. This isn’t right.”
Dattatreya then spoke of the various national steps taken to improve and modernize labour-related issues. And he hoped that similar social justice mechanisms which are meant for the common public are put in place and implemented for construction workers who are marginalized and often victims of displacement, and abuse.
Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary Ministry of Labour and Employment congratulated the chief minister of Odisha for his vision and leadership for the state. The secretary reiterated the challenges of India’s unorganized sector which stands at 93 per cent. He said that this section of the society continues to fall out of the development narrative. “Nearly 42 crore people need to be included in the development agenda of the nation”. He said inclusive development is the way forward.
Thereafter, Aggarwal spoke about the various national initiatives and the landmarks achieved by the union labour ministry. He spoke of the Child Labour Act, Maternity Benefit Act, enhancement of minimum wage and others. He also spoke about the streamlining of provident fund and the issuance of UAN number that now allows employees to feel secure about their PF fund. Construction workers are still left out from all such social security benefits, he said. This needs strong examination. “Only 1.5 crore of construction workers are registered in the country as compared to the existence of three to four crore construction workers in the country. Without a proper headcount of the workers it is difficult to reach poorest of the poor, especially those construction workers who are in a dire need of protection and welfare.” The Supreme Court is carefully monitoring the CESS collected under the ‘The Building and other construction workers’ welfare CESS Act’ (1996). He said that the fund disbursement under this Act is still grossly low. He further pointed out that the funds are not being distributed in the right spirit and activities. This defeats the purpose of welfare for the construction workers.
Aggarwal encouraged states to work together to correct these mistakes, emulate best practices, facilitate speedy registration of construction workers, work with the Centre, and also take concrete steps to utilize the CESS fund.
Honourable Chief Minister of the state, Naveen Patnaik, said that the state government has spent 200 crore against Rs 1,000 crore for welfare of construction workers and it plans to cross 500 rupees crore this year. Around 16 lakh workers have already been registered under the Odisha and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board and received benefits worth 175 crore. Stating that 25 lakh construction workers will be registered by the end of the financial year, he said and added that the state government has rolled out comprehensive schemes for them in different fields.
Prafulla Kumar Malik, Labour Minister, Odisha spoke of the state’s various successes such as enhancing minimum wages from 11 rupees to 25 rupees and then of the Orissa Dadan Labour (Control and Regulation) Act, 1975, to tackle problem of migrant labourers in the state. However a lot more is required on ground, he said. He spoke how his government has started putting Odisha help desks at various states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telengana, Hyderabad and Delhi to sort issues of the migrating labourers from Odisha. “Performance of Odisha is best in India in terms of impacting the lives of construction workers. We aim to skill eight lakh youth in the next three years and make Skilling India brand global. He ended his inaugural address by saying that he looks forward to the support of the Union government in emboldening his state initiatives.”
Subhash Singh, Chairman of Other construction workers’ welfare board said that 25 lakh beneficiaries have been enrolled thus far under the largest social security project undertaken by the Government of Odisha. Nearly five lakh beneficiaries have benefited with fund disbursement of over 200 crores. He said that 32 labour district of the state have already implemented online system of registrations. He acknowledged ILO’s technical expertise and collaboration to extend social security floor in the state of Odisha.
Day one of the national labour conference had technical sessions on BOCW Act and BOCW CESS Act. Various minister of states such as that of Meghalaya, Telengana, Kerela, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Uttarakhand presented. Union Minister of Labour, Dattatreya spoke that the session should exclusively address key issues such as registration of workers, initiatives of the various state government to address welfare of construction workers, social security of these workers and the efforts made in CESS collection. Many ministers said that to speed-up and systemize the process of data collection on construction workers and distribution of the CESS fund -- online registrations and online CESS collection – are being implemented. The ministers also spoke of the various welfare schemes in place in their states with regard to health, insurance, marriage gifts, skill development, education and maternity benefits. They also spoke about sharing best practices to see how the BOCW CESS distribution can be done optimally.
The post-lunch session on day one focused extensively in addressing issues relating to inter-state migrant workers. Joint secretary and DG of Labour Welfare, Government of India, spoke of the issue of lack of registration of migrant workers and how this creates enormous gaps in the distribution of welfare to migrant workers. He spoke about the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 and its salient features. He highlighted that the act does not apply to migrants who undertake migration on their own. And, he pointed out various challenges in the act’s implementation such as splitting by establishments, reluctance of migrant workmen in disclosing full information about their living and working conditions, lack of awareness, inadequacy of enforcement machinery, fear of employers or agents, low levels of literacy and lack of confidence in the local enforcement machinery.
Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, stressed on the need to collect detailed data on the migrant workers. Various states presented during this session such as - West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
At the end of the session Aggarwal asked the participants on whether we can incentivize the workers to willingly register themselves to intensify registration? And if we can maintain a record of skill-database of the workers?
Day two of the conference had intense discussion on the new Child Labour Act and bonded labour. Ministers from various states spoke about their states’ action plan, task force, challenges, success-factors and future plans on both areas.
Union Minister of Labour and Employment, Bandaru Dattatreya, spoke how construction workers need skilling, wage security, benefits like health, insurance, accommodation, decent working conditions among others. And how The Building and Other Construction workers (regulation of employment and conditions of service) Act, 1996 was put in place with this spirit. He spoke firmly on respective state governments utilizing the CESS collected under the BOCW Welfare CESS Act. “The supreme court has made a strong observation in which the CESS amount which is collected, about 27886 crores, and the spent amount is only 5800 crores. This means approximately 22056 crores are unspent and in the possession of various state governments.” He also minced no words in saying that few states are including other workers as beneficiaries of this fund.
This fund, he said, is exclusively for the benefit of the construction workers. “Supreme Court observations are on four topics: education, health social security and skill development. On these topics the court has pointed out that more needs to be done. However, some state governments are spending this fund by distributing cycles. This isn’t right.”
Dattatreya then spoke of the various national steps taken to improve and modernize labour-related issues. And he hoped that similar social justice mechanisms which are meant for the common public are put in place and implemented for construction workers who are marginalized and often victims of displacement, and abuse.
Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary Ministry of Labour and Employment congratulated the chief minister of Odisha for his vision and leadership for the state. The secretary reiterated the challenges of India’s unorganized sector which stands at 93 per cent. He said that this section of the society continues to fall out of the development narrative. “Nearly 42 crore people need to be included in the development agenda of the nation”. He said inclusive development is the way forward.
Thereafter, Aggarwal spoke about the various national initiatives and the landmarks achieved by the union labour ministry. He spoke of the Child Labour Act, Maternity Benefit Act, enhancement of minimum wage and others. He also spoke about the streamlining of provident fund and the issuance of UAN number that now allows employees to feel secure about their PF fund. Construction workers are still left out from all such social security benefits, he said. This needs strong examination. “Only 1.5 crore of construction workers are registered in the country as compared to the existence of three to four crore construction workers in the country. Without a proper headcount of the workers it is difficult to reach poorest of the poor, especially those construction workers who are in a dire need of protection and welfare.” The Supreme Court is carefully monitoring the CESS collected under the ‘The Building and other construction workers’ welfare CESS Act’ (1996). He said that the fund disbursement under this Act is still grossly low. He further pointed out that the funds are not being distributed in the right spirit and activities. This defeats the purpose of welfare for the construction workers.
Aggarwal encouraged states to work together to correct these mistakes, emulate best practices, facilitate speedy registration of construction workers, work with the Centre, and also take concrete steps to utilize the CESS fund.
Honourable Chief Minister of the state, Naveen Patnaik, said that the state government has spent 200 crore against Rs 1,000 crore for welfare of construction workers and it plans to cross 500 rupees crore this year. Around 16 lakh workers have already been registered under the Odisha and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board and received benefits worth 175 crore. Stating that 25 lakh construction workers will be registered by the end of the financial year, he said and added that the state government has rolled out comprehensive schemes for them in different fields.
Prafulla Kumar Malik, Labour Minister, Odisha spoke of the state’s various successes such as enhancing minimum wages from 11 rupees to 25 rupees and then of the Orissa Dadan Labour (Control and Regulation) Act, 1975, to tackle problem of migrant labourers in the state. However a lot more is required on ground, he said. He spoke how his government has started putting Odisha help desks at various states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telengana, Hyderabad and Delhi to sort issues of the migrating labourers from Odisha. “Performance of Odisha is best in India in terms of impacting the lives of construction workers. We aim to skill eight lakh youth in the next three years and make Skilling India brand global. He ended his inaugural address by saying that he looks forward to the support of the Union government in emboldening his state initiatives.”
Subhash Singh, Chairman of Other construction workers’ welfare board said that 25 lakh beneficiaries have been enrolled thus far under the largest social security project undertaken by the Government of Odisha. Nearly five lakh beneficiaries have benefited with fund disbursement of over 200 crores. He said that 32 labour district of the state have already implemented online system of registrations. He acknowledged ILO’s technical expertise and collaboration to extend social security floor in the state of Odisha.
Day one of the national labour conference had technical sessions on BOCW Act and BOCW CESS Act. Various minister of states such as that of Meghalaya, Telengana, Kerela, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Uttarakhand presented. Union Minister of Labour, Dattatreya spoke that the session should exclusively address key issues such as registration of workers, initiatives of the various state government to address welfare of construction workers, social security of these workers and the efforts made in CESS collection. Many ministers said that to speed-up and systemize the process of data collection on construction workers and distribution of the CESS fund -- online registrations and online CESS collection – are being implemented. The ministers also spoke of the various welfare schemes in place in their states with regard to health, insurance, marriage gifts, skill development, education and maternity benefits. They also spoke about sharing best practices to see how the BOCW CESS distribution can be done optimally.
The post-lunch session on day one focused extensively in addressing issues relating to inter-state migrant workers. Joint secretary and DG of Labour Welfare, Government of India, spoke of the issue of lack of registration of migrant workers and how this creates enormous gaps in the distribution of welfare to migrant workers. He spoke about the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 and its salient features. He highlighted that the act does not apply to migrants who undertake migration on their own. And, he pointed out various challenges in the act’s implementation such as splitting by establishments, reluctance of migrant workmen in disclosing full information about their living and working conditions, lack of awareness, inadequacy of enforcement machinery, fear of employers or agents, low levels of literacy and lack of confidence in the local enforcement machinery.
Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, stressed on the need to collect detailed data on the migrant workers. Various states presented during this session such as - West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
At the end of the session Aggarwal asked the participants on whether we can incentivize the workers to willingly register themselves to intensify registration? And if we can maintain a record of skill-database of the workers?
Day two of the conference had intense discussion on the new Child Labour Act and bonded labour. Ministers from various states spoke about their states’ action plan, task force, challenges, success-factors and future plans on both areas.