Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Shramev Jayate Karyakram

The Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Shramev Jayate Karyakram was launched in October 2014 by Government of India. Objective of this scheme is to create conducive environment for industrial development and doing business with ease and also expanding government support to impart skill training for workers. This is an umbrella scheme with five scheme under it as follows:

Shram Suvidha Portal

A dedicated Shram Suvidha Portal has been launched to allot Labour Identification Number (LIN) to nearly 6 lakh units and allow them to file online compliance for 16 out of 44 labour laws. They key features of Shram Suvidha Portal are as follows:

• It would allot Unique Labour Identification Number (LIN) to Units to facilitate online registration.
• It will facilitate filing of self-certified and simplified Single Online Return by the industry. Now Units will only file a single consolidated Return online instead of filing 16 separate Returns.
• It would allow mandatory uploading of inspection Reports within 72 hours by the Labour inspectors.
• It would provide timely redressal of grievances will be ensured with the help of the portal.

With these facilities in its kitty, the Shram Suvidha Portal is expected to bring in necessary ease in compliance of provisions related to labour and will be a step forward in promoting the ease of doing business.

Random Inspection Scheme

The process of labour inspection has been generally opaque and the units for inspection were so far selected locally without any objective criteria. The government has brought a new all India Random Inspection Scheme to bring in transparency in the labour inspection. The key features of this scheme are as follows:

• Serious matters are to be covered under the mandatory inspection list.
• A computerized list of inspections will be generated randomly based on pre-determined objective criteria.
• Complaints based inspections will also be determined centrally after examination based on data and evidence.
• There will be provision of Emergency List for inspection of serious cases in specific circumstances.

Thus, this scheme is expected to provide a check on the arbitrariness in compliance mechanism. It would utilize technology to eliminate human discretion in selection of units for Inspection, and uploading of Inspection Reports within 72 hours of inspection mandatory.

Universal Account Number

Under this scheme, complete information for approximately 4.17 crore subscribers of EPF has been centrally compiled and digitized and a UAN has been allotted to all. The UAN is being seeded with Bank account and Aadhar Card and other KYC details for financial inclusion of vulnerable section of society and their unique identification.

Apprentice Protsahan Yojana

The Apprentices Act 1961 was enacted for regulating the Apprenticeship Training Scheme in the industry for imparting on-the-job training to apprentices. Presently, there are only 2.82 lakh apprentices undergoing training against 4.9 lakh seats.

Apprenticeship Scheme has huge potential for training the large number of young person’s to make them employable. If properly revamped, it could also significantly contribute to ‘Make in India’ Mission. Similar schemes have been highly successful in countries like Germany, China and Japan where the number of apprentices are stated to be 3 million, 20 million and 10 million respectively.

Present framework tightly regulates the number of apprentices trade-wise, and is not attractive to youth because of low rate of stipend. Further the industry is averse to participate because the scheme is not viable for the small industries. There are a large number of establishments including MSMEs where training facilities are available but could not be utilized so far.

A major initiative has been undertaken to revamp the apprenticeship Scheme in India after extensive consultation with industry, states and other stakeholders with the vision of increasing apprenticeship seats to more than 20 lakhs in next few years. There are four components of this initiative, which are given below:

• Making the legal framework friendly to both, industry and youth. The necessary Bill amending the Act was placed and passed in Lok Sabha on 14.8.2014.
• Enhancing the rate of stipend and indexing it to minimum wages of semi skilled workers.
• Apprentice Protsahan Yojana which will support manufacturing units mainly and other establishments by reimbursing 50% of the stipend paid to apprentices during first two years of their training.
• Basic training component (mainly class room training part) of the curricula is being restructured on scientific principles to make it more effective, and MSMEs will be supported financially by permitting this component in government funded SDI scheme.

The Apprentice Protsahan Yojana will support one lakh apprentices during the period upto March 2017. Selected Apprentices and the Establishments ready to participate in this scheme from various states will be invited and it is proposed that Prime Minister will give sanction letters to these to mark the launch of the new scheme

Revamped Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana

Introducing a Smart Card for the workers in the unorganized sector seeded with details of two more social security schemes.
The ministry has three different social security schemes as follows:

• Social Security Cards for Unorganized Sector Workers: The workers of unorganized sector are provided a social security card, which will form a platform to provide all social security benefits to them.
• Rehabilitation of Bonded Labour – This is a centrally sponsored plan schemes drawn up to assist the States voluntary Agencies in their programmes for rehabilitation of bonded labourers.
• Employees Pension Scheme, 1995 – The new scheme provides for family pension and life insurance benefits to industrial Workers.