Despite the overwhelming number of the working and non-working population, the provision of social security has remained virtually conspicuous by its absence in the lives of the great majority of the people. Though, it is a demand of our time, that social security is an important need for the people in general and unorganized sector workers in particular, yet not much has been done.
The system was already not aimed at covering the universe of the workers. Neither the provisions are covering the majority of the population. A sizable proportion of the population is still far away from the umbrella of social security. There was already a big gap in demand and supply of the protection measures. This has been further increased by the drastic changes made in the legislative measures. The protective legislations have not only destroyed the influence of the protective measures but it has also provided an open ground to the employers to play with the lives and skills of the workers. Data and figures provided by different departments show that the number of beneficiaries has drastically gone down in the last few years.
The concerns have also begun to be expressed in academia, intellect and polity about the welfare of people in distress. The academicians, intellectuals and groups showed their concern for social security and its coverage.
The working group on labour policy for the Ninth Plan expressed its concern and recommended that “a national policy on social security should be announced with a view to ensuring compulsion and direction” (G.O.I., 2000:214).
The Study Group on Social Security (NCL 2002) strongly pointed out in its study that, “In view of the fact that the right to social security is regarded as one of the basic human rights and the government of India has recognized it as such by ratifying the Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Right under the Constitution of India and necessary resources should be allocated to it. The study group accordingly suggests that the National Commission on Labour make a strong recommendation for amendment of the Constitution so as to make it a fundamental right” (G.O.I, 2002: 8).
The present form of social security concern is not new. It is now several decades old. However, during the last three decades the concern for social security, especially for vulnerable sections of society has become more pronounced. However, the impacts of the attempts on the beneficiaries are not as much as it was desired. Thus, it is leaving a huge gap between the intent and reality in the realm of the social security endeavour. The problems are many. And the problems emerge due to several factors, like, lack of standardization, poor administration, lack of skills and equipment for implementation (World Bank, 2011).
The coverage and extension are also among the issues of concern in providing social security. The main problems related to the coverage and implementation of different social security schemes and programmes in the country could be summed up in the following terms:
“The analysis of different programmes shows that many of them are lacking in their effectiveness due to several reasons. Firstly, the schemes are limited in their coverage, marred with substantial targeting errors and leakages. Secondly, most of the schemes are financially expensive and are not integrated with other schemes for providing comprehensive and complete security coverage. Therefore, in many cases there is duplication of efforts. Thirdly, lack of coordination and synergy, right from the national to the end point is another major ill that plagues the delivery of services under various programmes. A major drawback that partly hinders effective delivery and is responsible for low success rate of existing social security schemes are top-down approach and inadequate participation of potential beneficiaries in the design, implementation and monitoring of these programmes. In a few instances where there is adequate participation of communities such as Maharashtra EGS, community grain bank schemes, Kerala Welfare Fund model and micro-insurance schemes, the programmes are reported to be running successfully with low administrative and transaction costs. These successful interventions, in turn warrants for initiating concerted efforts to promote local participation and ownership in the effective governance of social security measures in the country” (Remesh & Satpathy, 2004).
The right to Social Protection is a very basic and fundamental human right (ILO, 2006; NCL, 2010). It is now widely recognized and accepted that without social protection attaining the goal of an inclusive society is impossible. Hence, the question of social protection has assumed universal importance.
combination of all or any of these devices. Therefore denial of social security would be against human rights, right to life, human dignity and social justice. There is an urgent need for providing social security. It should be viewed from the other angels like, coverage, quantum of benefit, etc. in the unorganized sector in India.
It is unfortunate that the overwhelming majority of unorganized labour who constitute 93 percent of the total labour force, notwithstanding their contribution to the national economy. Their increasing importance in globalization, are not playing any role in the process of providing them protection of various Central and State legislation relating to social security. The legislations relating to social security have so far been confined to the organized sector. Whatever may be the justification for not providing social security legislation, we cannot ignore the interest of the majority of the people contributing significantly and the State cannot act as a silent spectator and helpless entity.
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