The National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS), set up by the Government of India as an advisory body and a watchdog for the informal sector, under the Ministry of Small Scale Industries and Agro and Rural Industries, has proposed to recommend the formation of a National Fund designed to meet the multi purpose needs of both enterprises and workers in the unorganized sector. Addressing a Press Conference here today the Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Arjun Sengupta said that the tasks proposed to be handled by the Fund were extensive as the sector needed a holistic approach for its development taking into account all essential needs covering finance, technology, raw material, marketing, infrastructure, skill and entrepreneurship and would cover both farm and non-farm sectors and also rural and urban areas.
The Commission’s findings show that forty per cent of the workers in the unorganised agricultural and non-agricultural sector are wage workers and sixty per cent are self-employed. Among the self-employed, the overwhelming majority are own account or assisting family workers and only 1.15 % (among non-agricultural workers) are employers.
Dr. Sengupta said that the vast majority of the self-employed in the unorganised sector themselves worked under poor conditions and the productivity of their enterprises was low. Measures to protect the livelihood of the self-employed workers and to promote the productivity of the unorganised enterprises, will not only have an impact on the condition of the self-employed, but also on the condition of the unorganised wage workers who work in the unorganised enterprises. Thus, regulation of the condition of work of wage workers needs to go hand in hand with the protection and promotion of livelihood of the self-employed workers and enhancing the growth and productivity of the unorganised sector enterprises.
The Commission had earlier proposed a draft Bill “Unorganised Sector Workers (Conditions of Work & Livelihood Promotion) Bill, 2005” for comments and feedback. Based on the comments received from states, trade unions and other stake holders, the Commission has revised the earlier proposal and has now proposed two Bills “Unorganised Non-agricultural Sector Workers (Conditions of Work and Livelihood Promotion) Bill, 2007” and the “Unorganised Agricultural Sector Workers (Conditions of Work and Livelihood Promotion) Bill, 2007” to cover unorganised agricultural workers and non-agricultural workers respectively. Part 1 of each of the Bills contains provisions relating to the regulation of conditions of work of wageworkers. Part 2 of the Bill relates to the protection and promotion of livelihoods of the unorganised workers.
Dr. Sengupta further elaborated that the Draft Bills provided for basic and minimum conditions of work for all unorganised wage workers and home workers. Instead of relying on bureaucratic implementation and costly and time consuming legal redressal procedures, the Commission has accorded priority to conciliation and has proposed the participation of workers’ representatives and elected representatives of the local bodies in the conciliation and dispute resolution committees.
The proposed Bills also mandate that the appropriate governments take the necessary steps to protect and promote these livelihoods through appropriate policies and programmes, and have provided for an institutional machinery to take a holistic view of the sector and to mobilise the necessary resources to help the sector overcome such constraints and facilitate its growth.
MG: PM
(Release ID :26637)