A regional meeting of North-Eastern States viz. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura and Sikkim will be held in Guwahati on 04.10.2024 (Friday).The Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India  is organising this regional meeting to hold focussed discussions around consensus on labour reforms, eShram-National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW), Building and other Construction Workers (BoCW), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and employment generation initiatives.

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

This meeting in Guwahati marks the culmination of an on-going series of six regional consultations being held by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India with the States/UTs, which commenced with convening of the 1^st regional meeting with southern States/UTs of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerala, Puducherry, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands in Bengaluru on 30.08.2024. This was followed by the 2^nd regional meeting with northern States/UTs of Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Rajasthan in Chandigarh on 06.09.2024. The 3^rd regional meeting with western States/UTs of Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Daman and Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Lakshadweep was held in Rajkot, Gujarat on 15.09.2024. The 4^th regional meeting with eastern States of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh was held in Bhubaneswar on 20.09.2024. The 5^th regional meeting with central States/UTs viz. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Delhi was held in Lucknow on 30.09.2024.

Key labour and employment issues including harmonisation in draft rules framed by States/UTs and Central Government under Labour Codes, issues related to employment data collection and sharing, inputs on the Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) Scheme announced in the Union Budget 2024-25, establishment of e-Shram portal as a ‘One-Stop Solution’ for easy access to social security benefits for unorganized workers including migrant workers, expansion of coverage of various Central welfare schemes to BoC Workers, upgradation of employment exchanges etc. will be deliberated upon during the meeting on 04.10.204.

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Himanshu Pathak