Need for integrated programme for labourers, industries: Tomar

Union Labour Minister Narendra Singh Tomar today said better implementation of labour laws, employment generation and formulating an integrated programme to reach out to both labourers and industries are among the top priorities of his government.
After meeting with Labour Ministers of 12 States and other officials here, Tomar said there was a need to bring about an integrated programme to address the issues and demands of labourers as well as industries, as the two sectors are interconnected.
"Being in the government, we are accountable for labourers, at the same time, we have to keep in mind that industries do not suffer. When there will be industries, there will be employment creation. And where there is employment creation, there will be talks of benefits to the labourers.

So along with the industries, labourers' problems, their benefit need to be addressed...There is a need for making an integrated programme for this," he said.
The Minister noted that there is a lack of official data on the total number of labourers in the country as they are spread across organised, unorganised and contract labour sectors.
"All the state governments need to decide on a broad programme...If there are 47 crore labourers in the country, our target should be to reach out to all of them," Tomar said, adding, if such a large section of the population is connected to labour sector, it is an asset for the government and at the same time the government is accountable for them.

The Minister rued that some labour legislations were not being properly implemented due to lack of cooperation between State governments.

"Unfortunately, despite legal provisions this (inter-state Migrant Workers) Act is not being implemented very effectively because of lack of inter-state cooperation," Tomar said.
He further asked State Governments to focus on effective implementation of Bonded Labour Abolition Act and National Child Labour Project Scheme for elimination of child labour.
The Minister said the labour legislations have been shaped by tripartite consultative mechanisms and there were proposals for amendments in various Acts like Factories Act 1948, Labour Law (Exemption from Returns) Act, Minimum Wages Act 1948 as well as the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation Act 1986.

"Better implementation of labour laws and ensuring ease of compliance is one of the priorities of the government. We are developing a unified web portal and a Revised Inspection Scheme in the central sphere for this purpose," Tomar added.