India’s social
security system is composed of a number of schemes and programs. Generally,
India’s social security schemes cover the following:
·
Pension
·
Health insurance and medical
·
Maternity
·
Gratuity
·
Disability
While
a great deal of the Indian population is in the unorganized sector and does not
have an opportunity to participate in each of these schemes, Indian citizens in
the organized sector (which include those employed by foreign investors) and
their employers are entitled to coverage under the above schemes.
The applicability of mandatory contributions to social insurances is varied. Some of the social insurances require employer contributions from all companies, some from companies with ten and more employees, and some from companies with twenty or more employees, and some from companies with twenty or more employees.
Pension
The Employees’
Provident Fund Organization, under the Ministry of Labor and Employment,
ensures superannuation pension and family pension in case of death during
service. Presently only about 35 million out of a labor force of 400 million
have access to formal social security in the form of old-age income protection.
Out of these 35 million, 26 million workers are members of the Employees’
Provident Fund Organization, which comprises private sector workers, civil
servants, military personnel and employees of State Public Sector Undertakings.
Four main types
of pension (all monthly) are offered:
• Pension upon superannuation or
disability;
• Widows’ pension for death while in
service;
• Children’s pension; and
• Orphan’s pension
In addition, there are separate pension funds for civil servants, workers employed in coal mines and tea plantations in the Assam, and for seamen.
Health Insurance
and Medical
India has a
national health service, but this does not include free medical care for the
whole population. The Employees’ State Insurance Act creates a fund to provide
medical care to employees and their families, as well as cash benefits during
sickness and maternity, and monthly payments in case of death or disablement
for those working in factories and establishments with 10 or more employees.
In case of sick
leave, the employer will pay half salary to the employees covered under the
Employees’ State Insurance Act.
Disability
The Workmen’s
Compensation Act requires the employer to pay compensation to employees or
their families in cases of employment related injuries resulting in death or
disability.
In addition,
workers employed in certain types of occupations are exposed to the risk of
contracting certain diseases, which are peculiar and inherent to those
occupations. A worker contracting an occupational disease is deemed to have
suffered an accident out of and in the course of employment and the employer is
liable to pay compensation for the same.
Maternity
The Maternity
Benefit Act requires an employer to offer 12 weeks wages during maternity as
well as paid leave in certain other connected contingencies.
Every woman
shall be entitled to, and her employer shall be liable for, the payment of
maternity benefit at the rate of average daily wage (the average of the woman’s
wages payable to her for the days on which she has worked during the period of
three calendar months immediately preceding the date from which she is absent
on account of maternity), including the day of her delivery and for the six
weeks immediately following that day.
Gratuity
For
establishments with ten or more employees, the Payment of Gratuity Act requires
the payment of 15 days of additional wages for each year of service to
employees who have worked at a company for five years or more.
India’s growth
story of the last two decades has had one recurring theme: that the pattern of
economic growth is accentuating insecurities. Yet, there continues to be a deep
divine over whether the gains from the growth ought to be ploughed back to
achieve social security for everyone. Social security has come to be linked to
be job benefits, trying it to one’s 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.
India does not
yet explicitly recognize a national minimum social security cover. A close look
at India’s record in providing social security shows that while only a fraction
of citizens enjoy any “protection” at all.
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.
Arpita Raut
( PG MEDIA 2015-2017)
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