SSI Meaning and Role in the Economy

Social Security in India

In India, the modern social security measures were planned and implemented after independence. They were too meagre and limited to the organized sector workers only, which constituted about 8 per cent of the total workforce, despite a majority of the workforce (about 93% in 2004-05) comes in the unorganized sector (self-employed or casual workers).

Importantly, the need to ensure social security for all, especially those in the unorganized sector, is an overarching concern recognized in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12). The Constitution of India provides strength and spirit to the social security for organized and unorganized workers through its Directive Principles of the State Policy.

Social security legislations came into existence as a part of indus­trial policy after large-scale industrialization. Some social security benefits in the form of Acts for the organized workers working in the big industrial units (factories, mills, etc.) were also enacted during the British period. But major social legislations were passed only after independence.

The important social legislations and social security measures relating to industrial workers may be cited as under:

1. The Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923
2. Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952
3. The Employees State Insurance (ESI) Act, 1948
4. The Maturity Benefit Act, 1961 (amended in 1976)
5. The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972
6. Universal Contributory Health Insurance Act, 2004
7. The Aam Admi Bima Yojana, 2008
8. The National Health Insurance Scheme, 2007
9. The Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme

To mention a few, followings are the ameliorative programmes and schemes for the tribals, rural and urban poor:

1. Five-Year Plans and Community Development Projects (CDPs)
2. Food for Work and Antyodaya Yojana, 1977
3. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), 1976
4. National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), 1977
5. Jawahar Rojgar Yojana (JRY), 1980
6. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), 2006
7. Integrated Tribal Development Plan
8. Swarna Jayanti Gram Swrozgar Yojana, 1999
9. Swarna Jayanti Shahri Swarozgar Yojana
10. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, 2001
11. Indira Awas Yojana
12. Rajiv Awas Yojana, 2009
13. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana
14. Bharat Nirman, 2005
15. Jnanani Suraksha Yojana, 2011
16. Pradhan Mantri Swastha Surksha Yojana
17. Total Sanitation Programme or Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, 2012

Thus, while a large proportion of the organized sector workers have been be benefiting from legally mandated and budget-provided social security benefits since independence, but most of the workers in the unorganized sector have been left out (only less than 10% of the total unorganized were benefited).

According to the World Labour Report, 2000, the public sector expenditure on social security in India was as meagre as 1.8 per cent of the GDP, whereas it was 4.7 per cent in Sri Lanka and 3.6 per cent in China. The eligibility criterion is also too tight as the exclude many a vulnerable persons.

The below poverty line (BPL) criterion is a minimalist and inappropriate approach to extend social security to the unorganized workers. About 55 per cent of the population though not comes in the category of the poor in India but is vulnerable. Not only this, most of the unorganized workers suffer from the lack of awareness about social security and social welfare measures.

It has been argued that globalization has adversely affected social welfare programmes of the state. The state often promotes rather than accepts global­ization. This is why it is bound to impact on the policy regime and welfare character of the state.

Social welfare and social security are intimately linked up but they are pursuing different ends. Social security refers to a state of mind as well as an objective fact. It is mainly directed towards providing income security as a preliminary to a state of social and psychological well-being.

Social welfare, on the other hand, is broadly understood as ‘the end product of possession of goods, positions in life and supply of services to help him to live in wholesome contentment and communication with others in the group’.

Narrowly speaking, social welfare refers to a set of institutional or personal services provided either by the state or voluntary organizations to prevent the incidence or to reform or rehabilitate the victims of disabilities, or disorgani­zation or delinquencies or destitution and so on.