G20: EWG meeting begins in Indore to tackle global labour challenges

The fourth and final meeting of the Employment Working Group (EWG) of G20 began in Madhya Pradesh's Indore city on Wednesday, with an aim to find solutions to the current global challenges in the areas of labour, employment and social security of workers, officials said.

The meeting will focus on finalisation of the Ministerial Declaration and Outcome Documents, and consolidating efforts of the three previous meetings, they said.

Eighty six delegates are participating in the fourth EWG meeting. The previous three EWG meetings were organised in Jodhpur, Guwahati and Geneva.

Arti Ahuja, secretary, Union Ministry of Labour and Employment, chairs the G20 EWG.

We are trying through the EWG of G20 to give the responsibility of mapping the global skills gap to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)," she told reporters on Tuesday.

"This mapping will be such that any country in the world will be able to see what kind of skills are lacking in its working population and how this deficiency can be removed, she said.

The labour and employment ministry secretary said the fourth meeting of the EWG, being held under India's presidency of G20, will finalise discussions held in the last three conclaves on the topics of 'Gig and Platform Economy & Social Protection and Sustainable Financing of Social Protection'.

A meeting of labour and employment ministers of the G20 member countries will be held on Thursday and Friday under the chairmanship of India's Labour and Employment Minister Bhupender Yadav.

The G20, or Group of 20, is an intergovernmental forum of the world's major developed and developing economies. India currently holds its presidency.

The group comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkiye, the UK, the US, and the European Union (EU).