The COVID-19 crisis in India has revived past national memories of the neglect of and apathy towards the unorganised sector workers, particularly those that are migrants and have moved from their home states to other states and even abroad in search of livelihood opportunities. Although there are no firm estimates about their numbers  they could be anywhere in the range of 14 crores (140 million), which is only one component of the unorganised workforce out of a total workforce of about 47.8 crore (478 million)  for the country.

The legislation enacted way back in 2008, known as The Unorganised Workers'  Social Security Act (mentioned as the Act hereafter) which entered the statute book on December 31, 2008, if implemented seriously, could have come to the rescue of the unorganised workers, who stand to lose enormously both in terms of livelihood opportunities and social security at the present juncture due to the health pandemic. The Statement of Objects and Reasons (SOR) of the Act, which spells out the intent behind the legislation, brought out the fact that then unorganised sector, despite constituting 94% of the total employment in the country, do not get adequate social security. The SOR also highlights that despite some welfare measures implemented by the central government for certain specific groups such as beedi workers, non-coal mine workers, cine workers, handloom weavers, fishermen, etc and also by the state governments and Non-Government Organisations, there is a huge deficit in the coverage of the unorganised sector in the matter of labour protection and social security ensuring the well being and welfare of this huge sector. The Act gave recognition to the problem that existed in the unorganised sector but the matter ended there and not much progress has been seen in giving an administrative shape to the legislation at the central level.

What exactly did the Act provide for? It envisaged the setting up of a National Social Security Board headed by the Union labour minister to recommend suitable welfare measures for different sections of the unorganised sector workers. Similar Boards would be set up at the state level by the state governments under the state labour ministers. It also envisaged registration of workers who would be an issued an identity card - which shall be a smart card carrying a unique identification number - that would be portable based on self-declaration of the person as an unorganised worker, which was defined in the Act as a home-based worker, self-employed or a wage worker. 

The Act further envisaged that schemes would be framed under the Act and only if the schemes require a contribution from the workers, it shall be made to receive benefits. An important feature of the Act is record-keeping by the district administration and workers' facilitation centres to disseminate information and facilitate workers for registration. In other words, the Act provided a blueprint for the coverage of the unorganised sector workers to receive social security benefits, which could have been improved upon over the years had the Act been implemented in its true spirit and not allowed to languish. 

Such a blueprint could have been found to be very useful in not only creating a database, which sadly seems to be lacking for this sector, and, more importantly, the workers also would probably not seen the neglect they face at the present moment for want of any meaningful social security or a system that could kickstart a Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) regime and issuance of portable smart cards that would have gone a long way in ensuring a seamless system of benefits both in cash and, if necessary, in kind in times of crisis. There would have been no necessity to dig the well and issue fresh registration and identification as the systems would have been already put in place for it work at this hour of the pandemic.

It is encouraging to note that many of the features of the Act such as the creation of social security boards at the central and state levels find a mention in the Social Security Code presently under the consideration of Parliament. As they say, the devil lies in the details and it remains to be seen how well the Code is implemented after its enactment. Till then, there seems to be no relief for these millions of Indian workers who are from the most vulnerable and deprived sections of our workforce and need all the nation's care and succour at this hour of crisis.  

(The writer is a retired Indian bureaucrat who worked in the labour ministry. He can be contacted at ppmitra56@gmail.com)