Income slab criteria fixed in the portal is another big issue. For example, an unorganized worker in non-scheduled areas earns only about Rs 1,660 per month on an average. The e-shram portal has the lowest income category of Rs10,000 per month and below. A total of 91.57 per cent of registered unorganised workforce are in this category, which conceals the reality that a majority of them are earning even less than Rs 5000 per month, i.e. they are surviving at much below the poverty line.This concealment helps the government and the employers in not ensuring even minimum wages to the unorganised workers. They talk a good deal about charity, which is humiliating for a worker who doesn’t want beggarly treatment by anyone but a fair wage and social security in exchange for the hard work put in the development of the country.Only 6.17 per cent of the unorganised registered workers were earning Rs 10-15,000 per month, 1.06 per cent Rs 15-18,000, 0.53 per cent in the range of Rs 18-21,000 and 0.68 per cent above Rs 21,000 per month.Odisha has registered the largest percentage of them, which is 24.37 per cent. West Bengal comes second by registering 18.22 per cent. Then comes Bihar at 16.63, Uttar Pradesh at 14.73 and Madhya Pradesh at 4.31 per cent. All other states have registered only 21.74 per cent.The Centre must note this variation and take appropriate action and launch programmes to benefit unorganised workers across the country.It is surprising that agriculture is the top sector under which a majority of unorganised workers have been registered. The sector accounts for 55.58 per cent of registrations. Construction, with 14 per cent registration, is the second largest sector while with 7.33 per cent registration, the domestic and household workers sector is the third largest. The fourth sector is apparel under which 5.95 per cent registrations have been done. All other sectors of the economy constitute only 14.3 per cent of registration.The Centre must make proper use of the revelations that the e-shram portal has been making to ensure the well-being of the unorganised workers by providing complete social security coverage to all of them.(IPA Service)Views are personal
Source link
