EMPLOYMENT

POLICIES OF INDIA
 PARTICULARS PAG
SR NO. E
NO.
1 National Employment
policy-Introduction
2 Objectives
3 Basic Considerations
4 Policy Statements
5 Macro Economic Policies
6 Sectoral Policies
7 Labour Market Policies
8 Micro and Small
Enterprise
Development Policies
9 Skill Development
Policies
10 Women Workers
11 Vulnerable Workers
INDEX
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 National
Employment Policy
First Draft: 01.08.08 Part I

INTRODUCTION

Employment is the main source of livelihood and self-fulfillment for

most women and men. It is critical to the way women and men live and view
their lives. A well-nurtured and productive labour force contributes
towards a dynamic economy and equitable society. Lack of access to
employment, that is decent and remunerative, lowers self-esteem and
leads to denial of basic needs of the individual and the family, and can lead to
social instability. It is, therefore, important to work towards the goal
of decent and remunerative work for all women and men seeking
such work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.

The NEP provides a policy framework for achieving the above goal.

1. Context
1.1 India has witnessed an impressive and steadily rising
rate of economic growth for about two decades now. The prospects
of a continuation of this high economic growth in the medium term
are also high. And yet, the challenge of employment, especially good
quality and remunerative employment remains formidable
1.2 Although there has been a reversal of the declining
trend in employment growth in the post-2000 period, there has also
been a simultaneous increase in unemployment rates as
employment growth has not kept pace with growth in
labour supply. Unemployment rates have been high and
increasing, especially amongst certain groups – such as
youth, women and young graduates. Furthermore, about 10
million new entrants to the labour force are expected each year, for
which jobs would need to be generated.
1.3 Over half the workforce continues to depend on the agriculture
even though it accounts for less than a fifth of the total GDP.This
implies a vast gap in incomes and productivity between agriculture
and non-agriculture sectors. This is mainly due to
inadequate growth of productive employment opportunities
outside agriculture.
1.4 The organized sector that offers work that would be considered
decent employs less than 10 per cent of the workforce and,
in recent years, has been characterized by low and
declining employment intensity of output growth.
1.5 An overwhelming majority of workers are currently employed in
the unorganized sector where most of the new jobs are also created.
In addition, most new jobs that are being created in the organized
sector are informal in nature. These jobs are mostly characterized by
low earnings, poor conditions of work and lack of social
protection and organization.
1.6 A large number of workers whether wage-employed or self-
employed earn below poverty line incomes and are
‘Working Poor’.
1.7 While some of these developments are dictated by the
trajectories of technology, demand and structural constraints in the
economy, the lack of appropriate responses to the employment
challenge is likely to aggravate these tendencies both directly and
indirectly, and increase the existing inequalities in the labour
market and in the economy.
1.8 The Government of India has ratified the ILO’s Employment
Policy Convention, No. 122. This Convention promotes full,
productive and freely chosen employment to all women and men
who are seeking work. While employment has been a concern for
policy- makers in India for several years and innovative
programmes, including those backed by legislations, have been
launched, there is still the need for an overall strategy for
employment generation.
1.9 This clearly brings out the need to go beyond special
programmes and integrate employment concerns into policy-making
at various levels. The crucial issue is to ensure that the employment
objective is factored or mainstreamed in the country’s
socio-economic development strategy. It is in this context,
therefore, that an Employment Policy is required, to ensure that
the growth process is 3inclusive and equitable as has been
emphasized in subsequent national Plans, especially the Eleventh
Plan.

2. Objective
2.1. The objective of the NEP is to provide a framework towards the
goal of achieving remunerative and decent employment for all
women and men in the labour force. More specifically it aims at:
2.1.1. Accelerating employment growth in the organized sector,
and
2.1.2. Improving the quality of jobs (in terms of
productivity, earnings, and protection of workers) in the unorganized
sector.
2.2 This document, however, concentrates mainly on the
productive employment generation aspects, and signals a number
of related issues for which separate policies need to be considered.
BASIC CONSIDERATIONS
The following basic considerations underlie the policy
statements proposed in the NEP

1. The National Policy must ensure that not only more jobs, but jobs that are
decent and those that ensure minimum wages, safe working conditions
and basic social security, are created. In particular, the level of wages and
the minimum wages are the key variables that the policy must address. It
recognizes that for the employment objective to be meaningfully realized, it
is necessary to ensure a basic social and economic floor for all workers.

2. The NEP must be based on the consideration that development must be

regionally balanced and environmentally sustainable.

3. A range of social considerations constrain the utilization of

productive potential of large sections of the workforce, such as
women and some vulnerable groups. Supportive structures and an enabling
environment need to be created to ensure that not only productive
employment opportunities increase but also there is an increase in
participation of these groups in the mainstream economic and social activities.

4. In the context of the slow growth of employment in the formal sector, and a
very high proportion of the labour force being engaged in the informal
economy the proposed National Policy should have a heightened focus
on the informal segment and provide for strategies specifically needed to
ensure quality employment growth in the informal sector.

5. Self-employment continues to be the dominant form of work in the Indian

economy. For large proportion of the self-employed, particularly
women engaged in petty production, trade and home-based work, it is a
mechanism for coping with poverty. The Employment Policy will,
therefore, require to not only focus on creation of wage and salary-based
employment, but will give equal emphasis to the measures to strengthen the
capabilities of the self-employed to improve their earnings and turn
their work from a survival strategy into productive employment with
rising income levels.

6. As long as there is a deficit of income earning opportunities, special

employment programmers such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Programme would need to continue. There is indeed scope for such
programmes to create productive employment rather than remain as fall-
back options, with proper planning of works, technical support and
convergence of rural infrastructure works wherever feasible.

7. The role of State governments is critical in creating a facilitating

environment for accelerating the growth of quality employment and
implementing the policy in all its aspects.
POLICY STATEMENTS
A multi-pronged strategy is necessary for achieving the objectives of the
national employment policy. Since the basic objective is to create more
productive, sustainable and decent employment opportunities, economic growth
itself has to be more employment-intensive. This would require not only that
the pattern of growth is oriented towards high employment generating sectors,
but also that in each sector and subsector, policy instruments that
tend to favor more employment-intensive product pattern and
technologies, are devised. At the same time, policies that are likely to hinder
expansion of employment and encourage insecure and exploitative conditions of
work need to be reviewed and changed.

Also, measures need to be adopted to improve employability of labor force in

the dynamically changing economic landscape. The social dimensions of
employment in terms of special needs and treatment of women and
disadvantaged groups has to be an underlying consideration in all aspects of
employment policy.

Policy statements in this document are accordingly arranged under the

following seven major heads:

(i) Macro-economic Policies

(ii) Sectoral Policies

(iii) Labour Market Policies

(iv) Micro and Small Enterprise Development Policies

(v) Skill Development Policies

(vi) Women Workers

(vii) Vulnerable Workers

MACRO-ECONOMIC POLICIES
Sector-Focused Strategies
1. Accepting employment as a major goal of development, the growth model
underlying planning should adopt a sector-focused approach, aiming at faster
growth of sectors with high employment potential.

2. Recognising that the majority of workers are employed in agriculture where

labour productivity is low, a faster growth of agriculture is necessary to
make employment more remunerative. While no significant increase in
the number of workers can be expected in agriculture, greater use of
both land and labour augmenting technologies, in land and water
resource development, appear necessary and feasible and should be explored.

3. Employment intensity of growth of other sectors/sub-sectors needs to be

assessed and made a criterion in according growth priority. Policies
should be evolved to encourage higher growth of employment-
intensive sectors. But in the case of social sectors, it should be clearly
recognized that their development plays a two-fold role by generating
employment directly and by improving employability by building human
capabilities and skills. In contrast with other sectors, the state has a major role
in the development of these sectors. Public investment in these sectors,
therefore, requires to be significantly stepped up.
FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICIES

1. Fiscal, monetary and credit policies have their own primary

objectives. But directed efforts should be made to see that they are also related
to the employment objective.

2. Several types of tax holidays, tax exemptions and differential duty rates
are in operation primarily with the objective of encouraging investment.
Such incentives should be calibrated to the employment outcome. Employment
may be made one of the criteria or additional incentives may be devised for
employment outcome.

3. Public expenditure on activities with high potential for increasing

employment creating capacity, such as irrigation and transport
infrastructure should get highest priority.

4. Interest rate structure should be so set as not to encourage capital intensity

by distorting relative factor prices.

5. At the same time, it is very important that credit is easily accessible to

employment-oriented sectors and small and micro-enterprises, if
necessary, on the basis of a fixed quota and/or by creating a separate
development finance facility catering exclusively to their needs.

6. Assessment of Proposals for Investment Approval (PIA) should

include employment as a criterion particularly when certain
concessions are envisaged to be given.
TRADE POLICY

1. It is noted that employment is considered as an objective of trade policy.

Mechanisms need to be devised to effectively relate various policy instruments
to employment outcomes.

2. Export incentives such as duty draw back and tax exemptions/

concessions should be directly linked with employment.

3. Duty and incentive structure of imports and exports should be

reviewed to remove any features that discourage employment
generation and revised to become more employment-friendly. For example,
any instances of inverted duty structure, which tend to be counterproductive to
employment generation, need to be removed.

4. Concessions given to units in Special Economic Zones (SEZs),

should also be linked with employment, either as an over riding or additional
criterion.
SECTORAL POLICIES
IDENTIFICATION OF SECTORS
As noted earlier, it is essential that sectors and sub-sectors with high
employment potential are identified and besides getting priority in growth
strategy, sector-specific policies need to be evolved for their faster growth and
greater employment orientation.

While this exercise needs to be carried out in detail at the sub-sectoral

level, sectors that can easily be identified for special treatment from
employment viewpoint are agriculture, manufacturing, construction, 8retail
trade, tourism and information and communication technologies (ICT) .
Recent experience has demonstrated that some of these sectors have
considerable potential for faster employment growth while others need
strengthening of their growth process to improve quality of employment.

AGRICULTURE
 Agriculture must be targeted to grow at a high (3 to 4 per cent) rate to
ensure that those engaged in it are more productively employed.

Existing policy packages need to be strengthened and new ones

evolved to facilitate diversification of agricultural products and shift from on-
farm to off-farm activities. Such diversification is already taking place;
measures need to be taken to strengthen them.

The National Authority for Rain fed Regions should function with an
‘agency approach’ to support and direct watershed projects at the local
level.

Farmers’ and producers’ organizations should be promoted and

strengthened in order to be able to bargain for their rights as farmers and for
better marketing and price realization of their produce.

A suitable mix of price and non-price incentives should be devised for the
farmers both to compensate them for the current cost of production
with a reasonable profit and to improve their capability to raise productivity.

Recognizing that an overwhelming majority of farmers consist of

small and marginal cultivators, it is obvious that a special focus is necessary
for them in policy for agricultural development. A strong package of support
in respect of credit, inputs, technology and marketing should be
devised to enable them to realize their productive potential and
enhance their remuneration from employment.

MANUFACTURING
Manufacturing sector has shown a reasonably high employment
growth in recent years, but most of it has been in the unorganized 9sector
where productivity and earnings are low, conditions of work are poor and
social security mechanisms are virtually non-existent.

Policies, therefore, need to be evolved to induce higher employment

growth in the organized sector and for providing better earnings,
conditions of work and social protection to workers in the
unorganized sector.

A sub-sectoral approach to policy-making is necessary to improve

employment intensity of manufacturing. Labour-intensive industries (e.g.
textile products, leather products, beverages, food products and wood products)
need to be given special policy support and incentives to grow faster, including
for sale in external markets.

While dereservation may be necessary and desirable in the present

context, the small scale sector needs to be compensated by adequate policy
support in other spheres (e.g. Credit, marketing) in order to sustain its
growth and perform its important role in employment generation.

Labour-intensive sectors, particularly the micro and small

enterprises, need to be provided strong technology and skill support through a
package of extension services and training worked out to particularly suit their
requirements.

Special package of support should be developed for small, multi-product

clusters in backward areas particularly utilizing the forward and backward
linkages that could be locally realized.

CONSTRUCTION
The construction sector has registered high employment growth as well
as high employment elasticity. While these features of this sector are
likely to continue, poor quality of employment is a matter of serious concern.
Implementation of various provisions of labour regulation, minimum wages,
safety and welfare, need to be strictly implemented. The government efforts
need to be supplemented by those from the trade unions and civil society
towards this end.
Efforts should be made to explore alternative to the ‘contractor
system’ for recruitment. Strengthening of the existing labour market
information system is necessary for this purpose.
A special programme for development of skills to meet the
requirements of changing technology in the construction sector needs to be
developed. A few public and private sector initiatives already on ground could
be emulated on an expanded scale for this purpose.

RETAIL TRADE
 The Trade sector has experienced one of the fastest growths
in employment over the past decade; and is likely to sustain this growth in
coming years. The need particularly seems to be of improving quality of
employment, especially in retail trade.

For the very small, self-employed retail traders, like the street shops and
vendors, policies need to guarantee their rights to space and
livelihood. Implementation of National Policy for Hawkers, Street Vendors
and small shopkeepers should receive urgent attention.

The question of FDI in retail trade should be considered only after careful
examination of its impact on business of small traders and employment.

A national regulatory mechanism may be constituted to ensure

fairness of competition and sustenance of small traders and vendors, as well as
to ensure good conditions of work in the retail stores.

TOURISM
Tourism industry has grown rapidly and so has employment in this
sector. Inadequate infrastructure and shortage of skilled workforce are
identified as major constraints in further acceleration of its growth. The
Eleventh Plan has made several suggestions to reduce these constraints, by
adopting ‘destination’ and ‘circuit’ focused planning of infrastructure and
public private partnership (PPP) in creating training facilities, which need
to be expediously implemented.

Tourism projects that integrate local socio-economic development,

through forward and backward linkages, should be especially
encouraged. A package of incentives, fiscal, financial and others should
be developed for this purpose.

Capacity for training tourism personnel at different levels needs to be

vastly expanded. Special emphasis should be given to build training
capabilities at local level through what may be called a Capacity
Building for Service Providers (CBSP) programmed.

OTHERS
 Characteristics and experiences of other sectors and sub-sectors (e.g. IT
and ITE Services) need to be analyzed and policy measures that would help in
improving the growth and quality of employment in their respective sphere,
need to be identified.
LABOUR MARKET POLICIES

Labour market policies aim at either regulating employment to ensure

safety, fairness and equity at work; or at promoting employment
either by directly creating work or facilitating employment creation by
providing information, training and placement services.

LABOUR REGULATION
Labour regulation in India is seen, on the one hand, as providing
excessive protection, to a small segment of workforce in the
organized sector, and, on the other, leaving the overwhelming
majority of those in the unorganized sector, completely unprotected, either
because of the non-applicability of regulatory provisions, or because of
ineffective implementation of provisions that apply to them. The
regulatory regime in respect of labour requires to be closely examined
with a view to devising ways to minimize this dualism.

Part of the reason for ineffectiveness and non-compliance of labour

regulations and frictions and disharmony arising out of them lies in the
confusion created by multiplicity of laws, definitions of concepts and categories
and administrative jurisdictions. Labour laws need to 12be codified,
definition, scope and coverage harmonized and administrative spheres are
clearly demarcated.
 Such of the provisions of laws that render adjustment of workforce
inflexible, and thus adversely affect efficiency of production, on the one hand,
and the employers’ willingness to employ more workers, on the other, need to
be modified, with due regard to the reasonable compensation to the affected
workers.

While compliance of the provisions of social security, where such

provisions exist, must be ensured by improving the efficiency of the existing
mechanisms or adopting alternative ones, a minimum measure of social
security must be available on a statutory basis to the hitherto unprotected
workers.

ACTIVE LABOUR MARKET POLICIES

Special employment programmes have been in operation for several

decades now. Their effectiveness has varied. Those of self-
employment variety have helped most of those assisted to increase their
incomes and some to cross the poverty line. Wage-employment programmes
have met part of the employment gap and supplemented participants’ income to
a certain extent. All the ongoing programmes need to be critically reviewed
with a view not only to improving their effectiveness but to see if they could be
replaced by just one-or two programmes with clear objectives and effective
implementation.
 Introduction of NREGP, as the single and statutorily backed wage-
employment programme in all rural areas of the country has been a welcome
and important step as a purposeful and focused active labour market policy.
While its contribution to provide supplementary employment, as a right,
and, therefore, an assured income to rural households is beyond any doubt,
ways need to be found to utilize it for creating conditions for sustainable
employment and all round rural development. Improving capabilities of local
democratic institutions and suitable changes in administrative and financial
procedures would be necessary to establish effective and purposeful linkages
between the sectoral programmes/projects and NREGP, for this purpose.

SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Organizing a system of training for development of skills required for
securing suitable employment is another important component of the active
labour market policy. Growing mismatch between supply and demand of
skills and inability of the existing skill development system to meet the
demands of a dynamically changing labour market has been frequently
highlighted. Nature and magnitude of the problem and recommendations
for its possible solution have been given in a subsequent Section.

LABOUR MARKET INFORMATION

In a situation of rapidly changing production structure and
technology, particularly in the wake of globalization, the nature and
composition of demand for labour is also changing dynamically, even in a
single location, industry and enterprise. Labour market information
service assumes special importance in this context. At present, Labour
Market Information Service is provided by Employment Exchanges,
which play the very limited role of registering job seekers and
notifying candidates to prospective employers. These agencies need to be
restructured to be able to provide complete information on job market,
vocational guidance and active help in placement.

Employment exchanges instead of being passive recipients and

suppliers on demand of the information provided by clients, should play
active and vibrant roles in collecting data and collating available information on
demand and supply of various types of workers and skills, by location and
region as well as in assessing the trend and forecasting future demands.
GENDER ISSUES
Gender should form an essential dimension in all aspects of labour
market policy. Issues relating to women’s work are dealt with in detail in a
subsequent section separately. But, in the context of labour market policies, the
following points need special emphasis:• all labour regulations must be
subjected to gender equality test and those positively specifying equality and
prohibition of discrimination should be strictly implemented.

• Special employment programmes should not only insist on high

participation of women, but should also specially 14emphasize
undertaking such projects for execution under the programme that favor
women by reducing their workload and drudgery and improving their health.

• Training of women should aim at mainstreaming their employment

rather than confining them to the stereotyped ‘female occupations’.

• Labour market information and employment service and building of

data base for employment should invariably be gender-specific.
POLICIES FOR MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES
Given the predominance of micro and small enterprises in the non farm
segment of the economy and the constraints they face in increasing
productivity and creating decent work conditions, the need for special policies
and programmes has been recognized for long. The following policies are
therefore aimed to realize this objective.

CREDIT
One of the structural problems of the MSE sector is the low capital base
of the enterprises and the corresponding low productivity. In addition, these
enterprises also face a number of problems in accessing credit for working
capital requirements. The fact that only around 5 percent of the enterprises have
access to institutional credit and that only 5.3 percent of the gross bank credit
goes to the micro enterprises that account for over 98 percent of all enterprises
is to be viewed with great concern. The following steps will therefore be taken
up.

The first is to make the existing policies and programmes more

effective. For this the Priority Sector Lending Policies of the banks will be
revised in favour of the MSE sector. Banks will be monitored to ensure
compliance with RBI guidelines on access to credit by the MSEs.

Secondly, Multi-purpose Swarozgar Credit Cards will be introduced to

cover the entire non-farm sector along the lines of the Kisan Credit Cards.
Banks will be asked to post professional staff for counseling services and
give wide publicity about the schemes for the MSE sector.

Third and more importantly, the Government shall create a dedicated

National Fund for the Unorganized Sector (NAFUS) for refinancing as well as
developmental assistance exclusively for the micro enterprises.

The two self employment generation programmes namely, the Prime

Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) and Rural Employment Generation
Programme (REGP) will be reviewed and steps will be taken to merge them
for greater effectiveness and better targeting.
CLUSTER DEVELOPMENT
Taking into account the existence of a large number of
clusters (manufacturing and/or services), the existing programme of Cluster
Development will be enhanced to cover as many clusters as possible by
providing schemes for the strengthening of infrastructure, banking facilities,
skill up gradation centres, technology and innovation centres as well as such
social sector programmes as housing, sanitation and social welfare.

Based on the existing cluster development initiatives, schemes such as

that for developing Cluster-Based Growth Poles (CBGPs) will be designed and
launched to take advantage of the existence of more than one cluster in a given
and contiguous area to create more backward and forward linkages as well
as providing common facilities and services such as infrastructure,
pollution control, raw materials, skill development, packaging centres,
marketing information/linkages and so on.

The MSE sector has highly skill-oriented workers including in

traditional/artisanal skills, specializing in the production of exquisite products
(such as specialized handloom clothes such as silk, sculptures,
ornamental wares, sculpting, etc.). Geographical branding of such products and
preservation of intellectual property rights are crucial in such cases for
value addition and sustenance of their knowledge base. Schemes and
assistance will be provided for such activities that would include
education, awareness creation, documentation, and service provisioning, i.e.,
raw materials, designs, markets, etc.

INSTITUTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE
All these call for appropriate institutional support. The Government of
India has created a Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise
Development charged with the responsibility to implement the Micro, Small
and Medium Enterprise Development Act of 2005.

While the Ministry has specialized agencies such as Coir Board and
Khadi and Village Industries Corporation, there are other departments and
Ministries (along with autonomous agencies) for specific subsectors.
Through periodic and structured consultations, greater coordination and
coherence amongst different agencies and programmes will be ensured.
 State governments will be encouraged to come up with policy
responses on micro and small enterprises and strengthen the state level
departments and agencies and to exchange experiences for learning from each
other, with special focus on home based workers, the majority of which
are women.

A comprehensive review of the functioning of the District Industries

Centres (DIC) will be taken up with a view to strengthen their capacity and
orient them more as Counseling Centres, resource and convergence
centres, and one-stop shops for micro and small enterprises through
preparation of projects, skill development, periodic disaggregated data
collection and dissemination of information.

ORGANISATION OF INDUSTRY AND WORKERS

Recognising the role of MSE associations in policy formulation,
advocacy, dissemination of information, steps will be taken to form such
associations in places without such associations and strengthen their capacity
of the existing ones.

Recognising that workers’ organisations in the MSE sector are few and
need strengthening, it will be the endeavor of the Government to encourage
formation of workers’ organizations that will enhance their ability to secure
basic conditions of work (e.g. toilets, drinking water, eating facilities),
minimum wages, social protection, voice and representation, social
mobilization/awareness generation, skill training and access to housing.

The formation of Workers Facilitation Centres for such purposes as

registration and servicing of social security will be encouraged.
SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Recognizing the enormous deficit in basic education and formally
acquired skills by the working people, skill development will be recognized as
an important component of active labour market policies of the
government.

MATCHING TRAINING WITH DEMAND

Labour market information systems will be set up adequately to
annually assess the labour market requirements, identify labour-
intensive high-growth sectors, so that skills development can be
planned and delivered accordingly to meet the demands.

The focus on skill training and development will fall on the informal or
unorganized sector of the workforce. Appropriate programmes and schemes
will be developed (some are already underway, such as the Skills Development
Initiative) and introduced throughout the country to meet the requirements of
such workers.

Recognizing the inadequacy of institutional capacity in the

public sector in training of trainers, policies and programmes will be
introduced for the participation of the private sector as well as the non-profit
sector such as cooperatives, NGOs and philanthrophic institutions.

To encourage acquisition of formal skill training by socially

disadvantaged groups (e.g. SCs/STs) special packages will be
introduced to provide scholarships, hostel facilities and tool kits.

STANDARDS AND CERTIFICATION

The employability of trainees must be made the main focus of all
future training efforts, including components such as curriculum
development, training delivery, certification etc.

A system of independent certification for candidates passing through skill

training as well as trainers will be instituted with appropriate 18standards.
This will be done at the national and state levels by designating
competent institutions in public, private and non-profit sectors. A system of
accreditation along the lines adopted by the University Grants
Commission (in respect of institutions of higher education) will be
introduced.

Greater involvement of industry in various initiatives mentioned above is

crucial. To ensure greater involvement and interaction, existing and successful
models will be assessed and their replication with appropriate
adaptations will be taken up. Linkage with Education System and other
programmes

From a long term point of view, skill training has to come through
vocational education. Given the limited capacity of existing
institutions, government will enhance the seating capacity (in public, private
and non-profit sectors) by creating new institutions and offering
vocational education as an option at the high school level of Class.

Special focus will be given to rural areas and to youth from

disadvantaged social groups.

Given the fact that a majority of the workforce has an educational level
of less than 5 years (including illiterates), functional literacy programmes
will be strengthened and extended. This will be done on the basis of a review of
the achievements of the National Literacy Mission as well as the literacy
campaigns carried out by civil society organizations.

Skill training and development will be made an important component of

public programmes and schemes especially those focused on a large number of
beneficiaries such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee
Programme, National Rural Health Mission, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, ICDS
and Mid-Day Meal Programme. This will give considerable advantage to
women in rural areas as these activities are mostly, if not only, suited to them
and predominantly spread over the villages in the country.
WOMEN WORKERS AND THEIR SPECIAL CONCERNS

The National Employment Policy recognizes the severe constraints

faced by women workers in terms of (a) lack of recognition of their contribution
in many economic activities that are not adequately measured, (b)
discrimination specially heightened by social disadvantages and (c) wide
gap in opportunities, wages and security as compared to men workers (d) lack
of supportive structures to facilitate their employment..

Gender sensitive macro policies take into account the special

circumstances and problems of women will therefore enunciated from
time to time. Such policies will aim at shifting women from invisible
to visible work, from low productive employment, especially in
agriculture, to high productive employment, and from low wage and no
social security to higher wage with social security work conditions.

Complimentary policies such as credit policies result in male bias.

This will be corrected by taking special measures to access credit and such
other facilities for women entrepreneurs and home based workers.

Technology policies often lead to more displacement of women than men

workers. Promotion and innovation of gender sensitive technology will
be undertaken in aiding women workers and enhancing their
participation.

Formal credit as well as employment and development institutions

will be guided, and if necessary mandated, to link with the SHGs to provide a
range of services. The models that are currently working in some states will
have to be studied and adapted to the conditions of other states. For this
the central government will encourage state governments with appropriate
technical and financial assistance to initiate suitable policies and
programmes.

Women as a percentage of workforces in SEZs are very high and their

participation in unorganized sector within EPZs almost doubles that in
organized work. There needs to be special focus on the women’s
participation in trade related employment, and the nature of such
employment.
IDENTIFYING SECTORS
Sectors where women’s participation is significant will be identified for
specific focus as, for example, in agriculture, food processing, fishing,
plantations, forestry, horticulture, export intensive manufacturing, tourism
and care services with a view to introduce technology that are drudgery
reducing and/or labour augmenting thereby creating conditions for
employment generation, a decent work and higher productivity.

Policies and programmes for skill training and development for

women will have a specific component of entrepreneurship
development for women-headed micro and small enterprises.

FACILITATING STRUCTURES
Special institutional mechanisms will be created to cater to women’s
employment, such as information centres and organizational structures.
To promote decent employment in emerging sectors and activities.

Special facilities (in the form of committees) will be established in

clusters and large enterprises to ensure that basic conditions of work with
dignity are provided for women workers and that no discriminatory
practices are allowed. These relate to (i) sanitary, drinking water,
eating and child care facilities, (ii) ensure the payment of minimum wages
wherever applicable, (iii) enforcement of safety standards and (iv)
representation of women in collective bodies of workers.

A specific area in which women have responded in large numbers arising

out of economic compulsions is their high level of participation in the National
Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP). It will also be the
Endeavour of the government to ensure that wage payments are carried out in a
timely and transparent manner and create such systems (like Post Office or
Bank Savings Accounts) that will both ensure timely and full payment and
empower them in the long run in dealing with modern financial institutions.

Special attention will be given to the educational and skill training

requirements of women workers thereby addressing, inter alia, the
perceived bias against women workers in the labour market
ORGANISATION AND EMPOWERMENT
Given the greater deficit in organization and representation of women
workers, especially in the informal economy, special programmes and enabling
conditions will be created for organizing informal women workers and
strengthening their collective capacity.

The Self Help Groups of women have emerged as an innovative form of

organization for accessing credit, marketing as well as other services.
While encouraging the spread of this organizational form to areas where it is
currently either absent or low presence, policies will be put in place to ensure
that micro credit graduates from consumption smoothening to livelihood credit
that will have a focus on the creation of productive employment with backward-
forward linkages.
VULNERABLE WORKERS

In an economy where an overwhelming proportion of workers are in the

informal sector whose defining characteristics is low productivity,
small size of enterprises and absence of job and/or social security to
workers, vulnerability should be reckoned as all pervasive. However, there are
specific segments of workers who are at a distinct disadvantage arising out of
their helpless nests in terms of local distress, distress induced migrants, working
children, workers with physical challenges or those in bondage like conditions.

MIGRANT WORKERS
Effective enforcement of the Inter-State Migrants Act of 19xx will be
ensured to regulate the recruitment as well as terms and conditions of work.

The state governments will ensure that migrant workers have access to
basic amenities such as shelter, drinking water and sanitation, health care
and access to schooling for the children. In addition, it will also ensure,
through appropriate legislation that the social security scheme for workers
in the unorganized sector are also made available to the migrant workers.
CHILD LABOUR

STATE DISTRIC SANCTION COVERA ACTUA COVERA

TS ED GE L GE
SCHOOLS CHILDRE SCHOO CHILDRE
N LS N
Andhra 20 807 43550 610 36249
Pradesh
Bihar 08 174 12200 173 10094
Gujarat 02 040 2000 023 1254
Karnataka 03 100 5000 024 1200
Madhya 05 138 9800 087 6524
Pradesh
Maharash 02 074 3700 024 1200
tra
Orissa 16 430 33000 239 14972
Rajasthan 02 060 3000 054 2700
Tamil 08 379 19500 307 14684
Nadu
Uttar 04 150 11500 105 7488
Pradesh
West 04 219 12000 164 8250
Bengal
Total 76 2571 155250 1810 104615
 STATE-WISE PROJECTS UNDER IPEC AND NUMBER OF CHILDREN
COVERED (92-97)

STATE PROJECTS NO. OF

APPROVE CHILDRE
Tackling
D N
child labour
(which is
Andhra 15 15455
Pradesh
Bihar 3 1340
Delhi 6 4200
Gujarat 5 1350
Haryana 1 300
Karnataka 2 1320
Kerala 2 2000
Madhya 6 2050
Pradesh
Manipur 1 500
Maharashtr 7 1750
a
Orissa 4 1500
Rajasthan 7 5800
Tamil Nadu 17 6710
Uttar 11 13939
Pradesh
West 19 22890
Bengal
Regional 2 NA
All India 11 NA
Institutions
Total 120 81154
declining) calls for policies and programmes to improve the livelihood
security of poor families to which they belong. Provision of gainful
employment especially during lean seasons, better enforcement of
minimum wages of adult workers, provision of basic social security
and contingent social security will be strengthened. In addition, child-
centered programmes such as ICDS and Mid-Day Meals in schools will be
extended to cover the whole country and steps taken to enhance their
effectiveness.

An area requiring special focus is to strengthen access to schooling

especially in rural areas. The augmented programme of Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan is expected to ensure universal enrolment of
children in schools. Special schemes will be introduced to states that account for
an overwhelming proportion of children out of school.

State governments and local self governments will be encouraged and

incentivized to ensure provision of quality education. The family-
centric and convergence-based child labour approach will be promoted
through policy and schemes, particularly at the district levels. Special schemes
will be introduced for states that account for an overwhelming proportion of
children out of school. Regionally focused policies and programmes will
therefore get special attention.
BONDED LABOUR
There exist various interpretations of the term bonded labour.

Operational definitions will need to be adopted.

Policies and schemes aimed at preventive aspects will be

strengthened to reduce the incidence of bonded labour that largely, if not only,
arises from debt-bondage. Special schemes for rural, poor households from
such socially disadvantaged groups as Scheduled Castes and Tribes, who
constitute the majority of bonded labour, will be introduced in areas of
origin. With the aim of tackling the reasons for bondage or bondage-like
situations.

People can fall back on NREGA in these hard times:

World Bank
NEW DELHI: The World Bank on Wednesday praised the UPA government's
National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme saying people can fall back
on

the scheme "in these hard times".

"India is fortunate to have in place a (NREGA) program that people can fall
back on to find work in these hard times", World Bank's Country Director
Roberto Zagha said at a function to launch a book 'Social Safety Nets : Learning
from Global Experience.'

Describing the NREGA scheme as an innovative programme, he said, "(it) is an

important cushion for poor people living in rural areas who might be at risk of
being pushed further into poverty."

Noting that nowhere the potential impact of safety nets is larger than in India,
he said, the country "spends more of its income on safety - more than 2 per cent
of GDP - than most developing countries."

India launched the NREGA in 2006, initially in 200 districts and gradually
extended it to cover the entire nation. The government, according to reports, is
also planning to introduce a similar scheme for alleviation of poverty in urban
areas.

World Bank sees NREGA as a barrier to economic

development

NEW DELHI: The World Bank has described the much-acclaimed National
Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGA) scheme of the UPA government as a
policy

barrier hurting economic development and poverty alleviation.

Various schemes of the Indian government like NREGA, watershed

programmes and schemes for development of small and medium towns are
acting as "policy barriers to internal mobility", the bank said in its 'World
Development Report' 2009.

The internal mobility, the report argued, is necessary as "lifting people out of
poverty requires shifting populations from villages to cities". The process of
migration should be encouraged, the bank said.

"Negative attitudes held by (the) government and ignorance of the benefits of

population mobility have caused migration to be overlooked as a force in
economic development," it said.

The report said economic benefits of migration are not always recognised by
policy makers and, in fact, two forms of policy have been attempted in India to
counter migration.

"The first response has been to increase rural employment, in an attempt to stem
movement out of rural areas ... These measures include the recently introduced
National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme," it said.

The World Bank cited other programmes such as watershed development to

improve agricultural productivity and development of small and medium towns,
which the Indian government has taken up to reduce migration.

"The second policy response is implicit. Because of the perceived negative

effects, local governments remain hostile toward migrants, while employers
routinely disregard laws to protect their rights and needs," the report said.

In many cases, welfare policies and social services are designed for a sedentary
population, the bank said.

"This is best exemplified by location-specific entitlements to social services,

housing subsidies, food rations, and other public amenities especially important
to working poor people," it said.

The report, which recommends concentration of production and mobility of

people, said, "Current policies do not allow communities to fully capture the
benefits of labour mobility."
NREGA may be adversely affecting agriculture
NEW DELHI: Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced the
extension of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to all
districts,

concerns have been expressed that the programme is adversely affecting

agriculture in some areas because of a shortage of labour.

"We have been receiving letters from some parts of the country raising concerns
over the NREGA affecting domestic agricultural work, although it is too early
to arrive at any conclusion. These concerns are very much local," Union Rural
Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said.

Representations have been received by the ministry from Andhra Pradesh and
Kerala saying that the scheme has affected farming as it has resulted in a
shortage of agricultural labour.

"A network of NGOs led by social scientist K S Gopalan has submitted a study
to the ministry which underlines the derogatory affect of the scheme on
farming. The report is being looked into," a source in the ministry said.

"Recently, the Kerala government had written to the ministry seeking

permission to engage labour from NREGA in private agricultural farms as ut
felt there was an acute shortage of labour for farming. The request was denied,"
he said.

The ministry has issued instructions to state governments to execute the scheme
in such a manner that it does not affect local farming.

"Food security is more important. We have clear instructions that the NREGA
should be executed only during the lean period and should not affect
agriculture. That is why it is for only 100 days and not the whole year," Singh
said.
NREGA provides a legal guarantee for 100 days of employment in every
financial year at the statutory minimum wage.
Under the scheme, anyone willing to avail the benefits has to register with the
local gram panchayat, which in turn issues a job card. If employment is not
provided within 15 days of receipt of the job card, the applicant is entitled to an
unemployment allowance.

The scheme, initially started in 200 districts in February 2006, was later
expanded to 130 more districts this year.
IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING

National Employment Policy is to be implemented by different

ministries, bodies and agencies of the government, both at the Centre and in
the states. It is, therefore, essential that an institutional mechanism is
developed to ensure that employment is mainstreamed in growth strategies,
macro-economic and sectoral policies and to monitor results of policy
initiatives. Implementation of employment policy involves several stages.
To begin with increasing the employment-intensity of economic growth
requires identification of sectors that are more employment-friendly and
pursue policies and programmes conducive to their growth. Identification of
such sectors and sub-sectors could be based on an analysis of the
employment impact of growth of such sectors. It will need to be ensured that all
major projects and their associated investment decisions take into
consideration the employment aspect. Assessments need to be made of the
extent of benefits derived from capital subsidies of various kinds and
alternative types of labour subsidies (for instance subsidies promoting
employment intensive technologies) need to be evaluated.

In order to oversee and carry out such assessments there must be an

institutional mechanism established, that is suitably empowered.
Adequate human and financial resources should be dedicated to
carrying out such exercises within the budgetary allocation. Periodic
monitoring and evaluation, as relevant, needs to be done on a regular basis.

For undertaking the tasks of assessment and monitoring effectively, it is

necessary to identify the nature and details of the required data and arrange
their collection and collation at regular intervals. It appears that for
carrying out a meaningful ‘Employment Audits’ the present data collection
systems need to be much improved.

Specifically,

A system of ‘Employment Impact Assessment” needs to be developed

and made a pre-condition of all major macro economic policy initiatives.
 A check list should be provided to different ministries and
macroeconomic policy-making institutions to ensure that basic
employment issues are taken into consideration.

A suitably empowered institutional mechanism needs to be

constituted to oversee employment outcomes of macro economic and sectoral
policies.

Data systems and monitoring mechanisms need to be

created/improved-it may, for example, be necessary to have annual rounds
of the household NSSO Employment and Unemployment surveys, and to
improve coverage of employment in data collected and collated by
organizations like the ASI and DGET.