Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India chaired a regional meeting with eastern States viz., Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh in Bhubaneswar today. This is the fourth meeting in a series of regional consultations being held by the Ministry of Labour & Employment nationwide with the States/Union Territories (UTs) on key labour and employment issues.

In her opening address, Ms. Sumita Dawra, Secretary, Labour and Employment (L&E) set the context by highlighting the need for strengthening collaboration and dialogue between the Central Government and States/UTs for bringing synergy in efforts to facilitate generation of quality employment and ensuring welfare of all workers.

Smt. Dawra said employment generation and enhancement of skilling and employability are key aspects to the realization of the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of Viksit Bharat@2047. In this direction, the Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) scheme was announced in Union Budget 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs 1,07,000 Crores, she noted. The Government is committed to supporting both large enterprises and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) for employment generation, promoting employability and formalisation of labour force under the ELI schemes, she added.

Further, the labour reforms undertaken by Government of India, including the Labour Codes were discussed. In a landmark initiative, the Government of India has updated, simplified and consolidated 29 labour laws into 04 Labour Codes, Secretary added, with the objective of promoting labour welfare, as well as promoting investments and employment generation.

The Ministry has been holding a series of consultations to build consensus on the operationalisation of the Codes with workers’ and employers’ associations, besides with States and UTs. In this context, the States were urged to plug the gaps and divergences in their respective draft rules by harmonizing and aligning them with the Central rules under the Labour Codes.

Government’s vision to provide comprehensive social protection for the unorganized workers at par with organized workers was highlighted through demonstration of progress under eShram. The importance of onboarding workers in the unorganised sector, including Building and Construction Workers (BoCW), street vendors, auto drivers etc. onto eShram portal to access social security schemes including access to skilling and jobs, on one portal, was discussed.  

It was noted that over 30 crore unorganised workers have registered on eShram portal since its launch in 2021. The need for States to expedite two-way integration with e-Shram portal to make it a more effective ‘one stop solution’ for easier access to welfare schemes of Centre and States for unorganised workers including migrant workers, was flagged as an action point.

The meeting emphasized the role of the recently launched BoCW Management Information System (MIS) portal in aiding the States/UTs in data-driven planning and more effective implementation of welfare schemes for BoC workers. States were requested to complete onboarding on the MIS portal, for verified information of coverage of social security including education of wards for BoC workers.

Discussion was also held on the need for the Centre and States/UTs to set up a joint mechanism for timely compilation of more accurate employment related data, feeding into a centralized dashboard equipped with advanced analytics, which will aid States/UTs in developing better policies for stimulating quality employment generation.

The representatives of States shared their ideas, insights and best practices on key labour and employment issues, particularly the digital interventions undertaken for ease of compliance and web-based inspections. The State Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Labour Commissioners appreciated the interactive meeting and assured on collaborative efforts.

The next meeting is this series of regional consultations with States/UTs is scheduled to be held in Lucknow for the central States and the NCT of Delhi on 27^th September 2024.

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Himanshu Pathak

 

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