{"id":115999,"date":"2021-07-03T10:40:09","date_gmt":"2021-07-03T05:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=115999"},"modified":"2021-07-03T10:40:09","modified_gmt":"2021-07-03T05:10:09","slug":"the-country-needs-a-framework-for-a-universal-social-security-net","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-country-needs-a-framework-for-a-universal-social-security-net\/","title":{"rendered":"The country needs a framework for a universal social security net"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.livemint.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=2734cf1998&amp;imageview=0\">Live Mint<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance: S<\/strong>ocial protection schemes protect the vulnerable sections of society. Exclusion from them increases the vulnerability.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis<\/strong>: Despite multiple laws and numerous judicial orders, a majority of unorganized-sector workers are excluded from schemes meant to protect them.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Recently, India\u2019s Supreme Court passed several orders on a suo moto writ petition on the misery of migrant labourers.<\/li>\n<li>The Court ordered the time-bound implementation of the One Nation One Ration Card (ONOR) scheme by 31 July 2021.<\/li>\n<li>The court had also ordered an update of the list of beneficiaries under the NFSA Act.<\/li>\n<li>Further, it has highlighted in detail that the problem is not the absence of legislation, but the way our schemes are being implemented.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>What are the challenges in the implementation of social protection schemes?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>First, ONOR the flagship scheme of the government is faced with operationalization problems<\/strong>. For example, the failure of biometric identification, the absence of e-Point of Sale machines, and the ambiguity in entitlement across states.\n<ul>\n<li>This has resulted in the exclusion of beneficiaries and hardship for those exercising their entitlement under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Second, exclusion errors under NFSA. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Currently, the beneficiaries are decided based on population estimates of 2011 and need to take into account India\u2019s increase in population.<\/li>\n<li>Based on Census 2011, the total number of eligible beneficiaries should be 813.5 million.<\/li>\n<li>However, actual beneficiaries stood at 805.5 million in May 2017, hat is 20 million less than the eligible count even by the Census 2011 estimates.<\/li>\n<li>Further, using population projections for 2021 suggests that around 100 million beneficiaries have been excluded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Three, large number of people being denied NFSA rations as there\u2019s no mechanism to identify beneficiaries.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The existing list has largely been derived from the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) survey conducted during 2011-12.<\/li>\n<li>While this survey is a better source than the earlier Below Poverty Line (BPL) census of 2002, its quality varies across regions.<\/li>\n<li>It is generally more robust in rural areas, but unreliable in urban areas.<\/li>\n<li>For instance, its methodology of beneficiary identification in urban areas is ambiguous and has large errors of exclusion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fourth, exclusion errors due to the absence of updated survey data. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>NFSA\u2019s original design required the SECC to be updated at regular intervals with full-scale surveys every five years.<\/li>\n<li>But given the government\u2019s track record on statistical data and surveys, there is little likelihood of this happening.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>Way forward: <\/strong><strong>Universalize NFSA benefits for the next year.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>The manner in which various legislated provisions and schemes are implemented tends to exclude a significant section of India\u2019s population.<\/li>\n<li>Hence, there is a need for laws on social protection that are universal and accessible to every worker, irrespective of place of residence or work.<\/li>\n<li>Such a framework for universal social protection should not just comprise a set of legislations, but also have the requisite flexibility and political will to be of aid to every citizen of the country at all times.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: Live Mint Relevance: Social protection schemes protect the vulnerable sections of society. Exclusion from them increases the vulnerability. Synopsis: Despite multiple laws and numerous judicial orders, a majority of unorganized-sector workers are excluded from schemes meant to protect them. Background Recently, India\u2019s Supreme Court passed several orders on a suo moto writ petition on&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-country-needs-a-framework-for-a-universal-social-security-net\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The country needs a framework for a universal social security net<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704706696},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}