Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said the government is planning a social security net for the global economic crisis-hit workers returning to India. He said security of overseas Indian workers and students was a top priority of his government.
?We are conscious of the need to structure an appropriate ?Return and Resettlement Fund and we are working on a project to provide a social security safety net for the returning workers,? Singh said inaugurating the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas function.
?About 40% of the total remittances of over $50 billion in 2007-2008 came from skilled and semi-skilled overseas Indian workers. Many of them have been badly affected by the economic crisis,? Singh noted at the function. He said India has been negotiating with countries with large emigrant Indian populations to improve the welfare and protection offered to our workers.
Over the last year, India signed labour agreements with Malaysia, Bahrain and Qatar that create institutional frameworks to look into issues such as recruitment, terms of employment and workers’ welfare, he said. Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has also established the `Indian Community Welfare Fund in 18 countries in which there is a significant overseas Indian workforce, he added.
?We must together position India as a supplier of skilled and trained manpower across a wide spectrum of skill sets and sectors,? he said. He said the government was working to enhance work opportunities for Indian skilled manpower, particularly in the West, by building labour mobility partnerships with key countries in the European Union. India has have finalized one such partnership with Denmark.