New Delhi: The government on Wednesday said that it is adopting a "multi-pronged" strategy to develop a mechanism to identify people in the unorganised sector and taking measures to augment their living standards.
Union Labour Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that his ministry is also making "all out efforts" to increase welfare fund cess from employers and maximise its expenditure for the benefits of workers.
"We are adopting multi-pronged strategy to develop a mechanism to identify people working in the unorganised sector and simultaneously, we are taking measures to augment their living standards and take care of their health and children's education," he said.
Tomar was addressing a Symposium and Exhibition on "Occupational Health and Safety in the Construction Industry - Proceeding from a Problem to a Solution".
"The welfare fund cess earmarked for labour....the ministry is trying all out efforts to increase the collection of cess from employers and also maximise the expenditure of that cess for worker's benefits," he said.
Tomar said that the government is aware about issues confronting the well-being of labour in the unorganised sector especially in the field of construction.
Stressing that working population in construction and other sectors is endowed with a rich heritage of knowledge, he said that his ministry is committed to providing them with training, followed by certification which will get their talent acknowledged and facilitate higher wages.
The minister specified the budget provisions laid out by the new government towards development of infrastructure and indicated that the construction sector was set to grow by leaps and bounds in the near future.
Michael Steiner, German Ambassador to India, who shared the dais with Tomar, termed the Indian government's vision to spend $1.2 trillion on infrastructure as the "right focus for exploring a young society with huge aspirations". He said that two German bodies, DGUV and BG BAU, collaborating to organise the symposium, had helped Germany reduce accident rate by more than 75 per cent in the last 25 years.
Steiner said that the "cost cannot be the only concern" in this industry and expressed happiness about German collaboration in building a culture of health and safety in the Indian construction sector for everyone's benefit.
Tomar also outlined Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for developing 100 Smart Cities in India and urbanising and industrialising the remaining parts of the country. "Considering that more than 10 per cent of our working population is employed by this sector alone, the health and safety of construction workers is imperative for our society and government," the minister said.
Stressing upon the need for educating workers in safety, Tomar also elaborated about the changes proposed in Factory Act which necessitates the use of safety equipments. The symposium was jointly organided by the Labour Ministry and German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV) and Social Accident Insurance for the construction sector (BG BAU), Germany.
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