A day after the strike by Left trade unions, demanding social security for the unorganised sector workers, the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) has drawn up another action plan that could cost the government Rs 45,000 crore.
The new action plan is part of the third report put out by the commission since its inception and was submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday.
Apart from a national security scheme and a skill upgrade programme to ensure comprehensive well-being of the workers in the unorgansied sector, the ambitious Rs 45,000-crore plan includes a Rs 2,000-crore component for increasing credit reach of small and marginal farmers. It must be noted that access to credit is not really a subject in the domain of social security.
The 13-point agenda proposed by the chairman of the commission Arjun Sengupta’s includes formulation of a national security scheme, setting up of a national fund, establishment of growth poles, programme for skill development and a scheme to increase credit reach to small and marginal farmers. “We firmly believe that this (13-point agenda) is within our fiscal and administrative capacity,” Sengupta said.
According to the commission’s estimates, 86% (39.49 crore) of country’s workforce seeks livelihood from working in the unorganised sector. The national security scheme, to be implemented in five years, for all unorganised workers is estimated to cost Rs 19,400 crore for agricultural workers and Rs 12,950 crore for non-agricultural workers, while the national fund for the unorganised workers would be set up on the lines of Nabard with a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore.
NCEUS further suggested setting up growth poles in 25 states envisaging a total investment of Rs 5,000 crore under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode to create job opportunities for the workers.
The Commission also underlined the need for improving skill development programmes with an additional investment of Rs 500 crore. The package to incresing credit reach of small and marginal farmers will involve additional Rs 2,000 crore.