Pulwama: Thousands of people can be seen swarming the District Employment & Counselling Centre in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district these days. With almost no information about the forms they fill up and submit at the centre, most of them are just going with the flow.

“I don’t know what is the actual purpose of submitting these forms. I saw people from my neighbourhood filling them up and I followed suit,” said Ab Hamid, one of the persons waiting in a long queue at the centre.

Another youth, Sameer Ahmad said, “This looks like a scheme for unemployed youth of the state in order to provide them a monthly amount as a social security fund.”

People in queue to submit their forms at District Employment & Counselling Centre Pulwama
People in queue to submit their forms at District Employment & Counselling Centre Pulwama

Given the confusion among the people, we tried to contact some of the officials in the J&K Department of Employment. On the condition of anonymity, an official agreed to share the details of this registration process and the eventual policy implications.

He said, “Basically, this registration process is in accordance with the Unorganized Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008. All the workers like carpet weavers, tailors, cobblers et cetera who are employed within the unorganized sector are to be registered under this scheme.”

“Actually, there is not a particular benefit outlined by the government under this scheme. That will be decided later on when the government has adequate data about the workers in the unorganized sector. This registration process is intended to provide the government with the concerned data,” he added.

People throng shops for application forms and xerox outside District Employment & Counselling Centre Pulwama
People throng shops for application forms and xerox outside District Employment & Counselling Centre Pulwama

He further said that only those workers can submit their registration forms at the centre who have attained the age of 14 years. This is in accordance with the Constitution of India which outlines that no child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment. The minimum age for employment is, therefore, 14 years in such cases.

He, however, said that those workers who are already registered and have been taking benefit from the social security schemes of the J&K Department of Labour & Employment need not submit the forms. The application forms of such workers will be rejected after the verification process which will be conducted in due course of time.

It is pertinent to mention that the District Employment Centre in Pulwama has notified that the registration forms will be received only till 02:00 PM on all working days.

Unorganized Workers’ Social Security Act 2008

Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act 2008 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to provide for the social security and welfare of the unorganised workers (meaning home-based workers, self-employed workers or daily-wage workers). This act received the assent of the President of India on 30 December 2008.

The act provides for the constitution of National Social Security Board at the Central level which shall recommend formulation of social security schemes viz life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, old age protection and any other benefit as may be determined by the Government for unorganised workers.

As a follow up to the implementation of the Act, the National Social Security Board was set up on 18 August 2009.

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