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Monthly pension plan for informal workers in offing
News: Government is working on a plan to offer a monthly pension to unorganised workers.
Facts:
- National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government is working on a plan to offer a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 to unorganised workers.
- Pension will help the domestic helps and migrant labour above the age of 60 that will be directly transferred to their bank accounts, creating a social security net for unorganised sector workers.
- The money transfers will be effected through an unorganised worker identification number (UWIN) that could be linked with the beneficaries’ Aadhaar IDs.
- The scheme could require an additional Rs 1.2 lakh crore to implement, after subsuming related, ongoing schemes in various states.
- The legal framework of the scheme is already in place and the UWIN platform is also ready to go live. Unorganised workers will be eligible for the pension after they turn 60 years old.
- The scheme is likely to be enforced through the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008, (UWSS Act) which has already put in place a legal framework for providing social security benefits to workers in the unorganised sector.
- The Act provides for the registration and issuance of identity cards to unorganised workers.
| ▪ The UWIN Card will have a unique number that will be seeded with Aadhaar to provide all benefits of social security schemes at one stop. ▪ The government can launch any welfare scheme or give a direct subsidy to unorganised workers through the UWIN platform, which will be ready in a couple of days.
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- In 2017-18, India’s unemployment rate was a 45-year-high of 6.1%, the Business Standard reported, and this plan can be helpful for the unorganized workers who suffer from lack of sufficient jobs.
Unorganised sector:
- Labour force survey on employment and unemployment conducted in 2011-12 by NSSO reported 474.1 million employed people, of which 82.7% was in the unorganised sector.
- Existing schemes for the urorganised worker include
- Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS)
- National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS)
- Financial Support to Artisans in Indigent Circumstances (Pension to Mastercrafts Artisans) Scheme
- Handloom Weavers’ Comprehensive Welfare Scheme and Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY).
