National employment policy on the anvil, says Kharge

The Union government is in the process of formulating a national employment policy, labour and employment minister M Mallikarjun Kharge said today. The policy, being prepared by the Department of Planning, would be presented to the Cabinet once it is ready, the minister said.

Kharge said the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) scheme is proposed to be extended in a phased manner to workers in hazardous mines such as slate and mica ones, as well as beedi workers, autorickshaw and taxi drivers, ragpickers, domestic workers and rickshaw pullers. By May-end, RSBY cards had been issued to 2.35 crore below-poverty-line (BPL) families, he said. The scheme offers a cashless health insurance cover of Rs 30,000 to BPL families of five or more members to meet hospital expenses in a public or private hospital empanelled under the scheme throughout the country, officials said. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has selected the scheme as a social security scheme for publication, they said.

 

Kharge was speaking at a news conference after flying back from Geneva, where he attended the 100th International Labour Conference. At the conference, Kharge attended meetings of labour ministers from Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries, India Brazil South Africa and G-20 countries.

Kharge said several countries, including Nigeria, Iran, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Afghanistan were impressed by the RSBY scheme, which they wanted to implement in their respective countries. "We are ready to give them the know-how and the expertise on how we run the scheme in India," the minister said. He added the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act came in for praise at the Geneva conference and the meetings.