SOCIAL SECURITY IN INDIA:

Synopsis Of Social Security Laws

The principal social security laws enacted in India are the following:Social security, in

the broad sense of the term, means the overall security for a person in the family,

workplace and society. It must include the measures designed to ensure that all

citizens meet their basic needs (such as adequate nutrition, shelter, health care and

clean water supply), as well as be protected from contingencies (such as childbirth,

child care, illness, disability, death, unemployment, widowhood and old age) to enable

them to maintain an adequate standard of living consistent with social norms. It must

also, by implication, include the protection of livelihoods and a guarantee of work and

adequate and fair wages, because, without this, other contingency benefits have no

meaning.Since the late 1990s, India is experiencing a consistent growth in its Gross

Domestic Product (GDP). The GDP is the total value of all final goods and services

produced in the Indian territory by Indians and all other nationals living and working

on Indian territory. Census 2001 estimates that there are more than 400 million

workers in India. Primarily, workers are the producers of goods and services and,

therefore, are the contributors of India's GDP. Those who are in the productive age

group, produce goods for themselves and for those who do not work, including

children and retirees. Social security, as a system to meet the basic needs as well as

contingencies of life in order to maintain an adequate standard of living, is not charity

but the right of all workers because they are contributors to the national income of a

country.

However, the social security system in India is so skewed that it completely keeps out

about 390 million unorganised workers from its benefits. It may be recalled that 390

million unorganised and deprived workers, along with their dependents would

constitute approximately 1 billion or around 80 to 85 percent of the population. It is a

myth that unorganised workers do not contribute to India's national income. Experts

have pointed out that the informal sector - or the unorganised sector as it is called in

India - generates about 62 per cent of the GDP, 50 per cent of gross national savings,

and 40 per cent of national exports. As they contribute in a greater degree towards

the prosperity and growth of the economy, they have correspondingly greater claim

for social security as citizens. If the unpaid work of women in the household or in the

family production activities were also accounted for, the contribution of unorganised

informal workers would be even more.

Issues with implementation of social security in India

Social security has come to be linked to job benefits, tying it to ones status as a worker

in the formal or the informal economy when, fundamentally, it originates from the

notion of ensuring everyone protection against vulnerability and deprivation.

In the Constitution, Article 41 of Directive Principles asks the state to within the limits

of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the

right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old

age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want. Article 42

says the state shall make provisions for securing just and humane conditions of work

and for maternity benefits. In recent years, including with an intervention by the

Supreme Court in the Right to Food case, the government has moved forward to

providing nutrition and employment support with a legal guarantee through the

MGNREGA.

Economists Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze distinguish two aspects of social security

protection and promotion. While the former denotes protection against a fall in

living standards and living conditions through ill health, accidents, the latter focuses

on enhanced living conditions, helping everyone overcome persistent capabilities

deprivation.

Indias record in providing social security shows that while only a fraction of citizens

enjoy any protection at all, these are being further eroded with the current pattern of

economic growth. In provisions aimed at promotion, social security through nutrition,

work entitlements for all, recent evidence gives reasons for cheer, but even these are

being threatened with fund cuts and further shrinking.

The government launched the first pensions programme for the poor, the National

Social Assistance Programme, starting with of a pension of Rs. 75 per month, in 1995.

Under the Indira Gandhi Old Age Pension Scheme and Widow Pension Scheme, the

Central government contributes Rs. 200 and Rs. 300 per month respectively. Several

States, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Bihar provide between Rs. 400-300 per

month, while Tamil Nadu provides Rs. 1000 per month.

The UPA government appointed the National Commission for Enterprises in the

Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) in 2004 to look into livelihood conditions and social

security for unorganised workers employed in the unorganised sector and those in

the formal sector without any social protection. It found that only those in the formal

sector, 8 per cent of Indias workforce, enjoys social security. Over 91 percent of

workers, over 39.5 crore workers, are in the informal sector.

India spends 1.4 percent of its GDP on social protection, among the lowest in Asia,

far lower than China, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and even Nepal. The NDA government has

not yet indicated any support to the idea of legally guaranteed social protection for all

workers.

Bill for the unorganized sector:

(National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS)

1. There is no assurance of any floor-level security such as health coverage or old-age

pension.

2. While the trade unions had reservations about the lack of any defined financial

commitment for social security in the NCEUS Bills

3. There were also problems regarding the proposal to set up a National Fund without

any stated financial obligation on the part of the government or the employers. The

trade unions wanted the NCEUS to make specific recommendations outlining

contributions from the government in terms of gross domestic product (GDP)

percentage and from the employers in the form of an appropriate cess or levy.

4. Kerala is the first State in the country to enact a social security scheme for the migrant

workers. While a comprehensive legislation for migrants welfare is still in the works,

the Kerala Migrant Workers Welfare Scheme 2010 was the beginning. The scheme

provides a registered migrant four benefits: accident/ medical care for up to 25,000 in

case of death, 1 lakh to the family childrens education allowance and termination

benefits of 25,000 after five years of work. When a worker dies, the welfare fund

provides for the embalming of the body and air transportation

5. Meanwhile, in other important areas of livelihood and conditions of life there are fears

of reversal and setback. A major concern relates to works under the Mahatma Gandhi

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), for which the allocation has

been cynically restrained to around Rs.33,000 crorejust the same as the previous

two years.

6. Even though this is supposed to be a demand-driven scheme, with spending going up

as the demand for employment increases and generates public works, the Centre has

actually been squeezing it dry in the past few years by slowing down and making more

stringent the transfer of funds to States. Indeed, the pressure to keep the amount

spent on MGNREGA within the budgetary limit last year was so great that wages to

the tune of more than Rs.1,000 crore have not been paid to workers! While hapless

daily-wage labourers languish for months without payment for work they have already

done, Jaitley chooses not to recognise this even to the extent of adding this unpaid

amount to his budgetary calculation.