PM Modi to inaugurate 2-day state labour ministers conference on Thursday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate a two-day conference of state labour ministers at Tirupati on Thursday which will deliberate on reforms, social security for informal workers and Vision-2047 for workforce among others.

A top labour ministry official said that the 'National Labour Conference of Labour Ministers and Labour Secretaries of States/UTs' scheduled on 25th and 26th August, 2022 at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister would also address the conference virtually, the official said.

This conference is being organised to seek the feedback of state counterparts after 2014, the official added. Earlier such conferences were held in a different format before 2014.

The conference will deliberate on integrating e-Shram portal for on boarding social security schemes run by Central Government & State Governments to universalize social protection to workers and to improve employment opportunities for all.

The e-Shram portal was launched in August last year to create a national database for unorganised workers with the main objective of providing social security and other benefits to them.

The database will also work as an input for evidence based policies to suit the requirement of workforce across the country. At present over 28 crore informal sector workers under 400 different occupations have registered themselves.

The conference will also discuss Swasthya se Samriddhi concept where deliberations will be on improving medical care and services through ESI (employee state insurance) hospitals run by State Governments and integration with PMJAY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna).

The official told that the meeting would be presided by Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav and discussion would also be held on framing of rules under four Labour Codes and modalities for implementation along with development of Portals for licensing, registration, returns, inspections etc.

The conference will also discuss the Vision-2047 for workforce of the country which may be discussed on the lines of Vision Shramev Jayate @ 2047.

Under social security code, all informal sector workers would be covered under social security scheme run by Employees State Insurance Corporation. It is one among the four labour codes passed by the Parliament. The government is in the process of implementing these codes.

There are 3.8 crore insured person and over 12.5 crore total beneficiaries (including family member of insured person) under the ESI scheme run by the ESIC at present.

The official told that the number of insured persons and beneficiaries are expected to increase by 20 per cent under ESIC ambit after the implementation of social security code.

The ESIC will also expand the ambit of its services to all 744 districts of the country by December 2022.