Govt plans more benefits informal sector

The 422-million-strong unorganised workforce in the country could enjoy benefits like common minimum wage, fixed work hours and overtime benefits, if the government accepts two draft Bills currently being formulated by the National Commission for the Enterprises in the unorganised Sector.

While one of the draft Bills covers the unorganised workers in the agricultural sector, the other is for the non-agricultural sector.

"At present, the Ministry of Labour prescribes a national minimum wage but it is not mandatory for the states to implement it. The two proposed Bills will make it mandatory for the states to adhere to the common national minimum wage for unorganised sector workers," said Arjun K Sengupta, chairman, NCEUS.

The commission was set up as part of the commitments made under the Common Minimum Programme by the UPA government. The Common National Minimum Wage will be fixed by the government within a year of the implementation of the proposed Bill. "We have proposed a periodical review of wages," said Ravi Srivastava, a member of the commission. "The draft Bills will be submitted to the government within five to six weeks," added Sengupta.

The commission will also recommend the government to set up a national fund for the unorganised sector which will be managed by a financial institution, on the lines of Nabard and Sidbi.

"Though the corpus is yet to be decided, we feel Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) should be enough for the next five years. The initial corpus could be Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion)," said Sengupta. According to Srivastava, only 3-4 per cent of the unorganised enterprises have access to bank credit.