A regional meeting of northern States and Union Territories (UTs) viz. Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Rajasthan and Chandigarh will be held on 06.09.2024 in Chandigarh. This meeting is being organized by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India to discuss various issues with a focus on Labour Reforms, eShram-National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW), Building and other Construction Workers (BoCW), and Employment generation.

The meeting will be chaired by Sushri Shobha Karandlaje, Union Minister of State for Labour & Employment and attended by Smt. Sumita Dawra, Secretary, Labour and Employment and other senior officers of the Governments of India, States and UTs.

This meeting is in continuation of an ongoing series of Nation-wide consultations being held by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India with the States/UTs. The 1^st regional meeting was held in Bengaluru on 30.08.2024 with southern States/UTs of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, Puducherry, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. These regional meetings will continue till 04.10.2024.

A gamut of key issues including harmonisation in draft rules made by States and UTs under Labour Codes, the establishment of e-Shram portal as ‘One-Stop Solution’ for easy access to social protection benefits for unorganized workers, expansion of coverage of various Central welfare schemes to BoC Workers, linkage with educational institutions for employment opportunities, measurement of employment and National Career Service (NCS) will be deliberated upon during the meeting.

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Himanshu Pathak