In a bid to provide better working conditions and some social security to about 37 crore (370 million) workers in the unorganised sector, an empowered group of ministers on Friday cleared a draft of the unorganised sector workers bill that provides for pension and insurance to the workforce.
The GoM, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, would now send the draft to the Cabinet for clearance.
Sources said Advani had asked the labour ministry to find out "ways and means" to fund the scheme, even as the finance ministry was also asked to chip in.
However, it could not be ascertained whether the Centre's support would be through the Consolidated Fund of India or through the budgetary allocation.
They said whether the "ways and means" would be through fees, cess or taxes would have to be discussed and a decision would be taken at the earliest.
"Now that the enabling platform (clearance of bill by GoM) has been set up, we will be able to go into the nitty-gritty of the financial aspects of the funding," the sources said.
The proposed bill provides for creating the Unorganised Sector Workers Welfare Fund and Board at the central and state levels.
The bill seeks to provide life insurance, health insurance and pension for the unorganised sector, which comprises 93 per cent of the workforce of the country.
The Employees Provident Fund Organisation would manage the pension scheme, while the Employees State Insurance Corporation would manage the health insurance, the sources added.
In order to make the scheme successful, a 'workers' welfare facilitation centre' would be constituted with manpower drawn from various levels including local bodies and NGOs.
In the earlier Cabinet meeting, the proposed Bill was referred to the GoM -- headed by Advani -- which has Law Minister Arun Jaitley, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik and Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh as members.
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