The Consultative Committee members of the Ministry of Labour &
Employment have urged the Government to ensure due patronage to the
traditional skill while going for the ratification of Conventions
adopted by the International Labour Organisation (IlO) on Labour issues,
especially in the arena of Child Labour. The members have also called
for expediting the cause of providing a minimum pension of Rs. 1000 per
month to the EPF beneficiaries as well as to ensure proper registration
of workers in the unorganized sectors particularly the construction
workers.
The meeting of Consultative Committee of Labour & Employment
Ministry which held yesterday evening was convened for providing in
insight to the members of the various conventions of ILO as ratified by
the Government of India on time to time. Speaking on the occasion, Union
Labour & Employment Minister Shri Mallikarjun Kharge who chaired
the meeting, said India, a Founding Member of the ILO, has been a
permanent member of the ILO Governing Body since 1922. ILO has now
expanded its membership to 185 nations. The first ILO Office in India
started in 1928. The decades of productive partnership between the ILO
and its constituents has mutual trust and respect as underlying
principles and is grounded in building sustained institutional
capacities and strengthening capacities of partners. It has a
two-directional focus for socio-economic development: overall strategies
and ground-level approaches.
The Minister said the approach of India with regard to International
Labour Standards has always been positive. The ILO instruments have
provided guidelines and useful framework for the evolution of
legislative and administrative measures for the protection and
advancement of the interest of labour. It has always been the practice
in India that we ratify a Convention when we are fully satisfied that
our laws and practices are in conformity with the relevant ILO
Convention. The ILO has so far adopted 189 Conventions and 201
Recommendations. Out of 189 ILO Conventions, India has so far ratified
43 Conventions which includes 4 (four) core or fundamental human rights
Conventions.
He said we have ratified 4 core conventions and 3 priority/governance
conventions. The 4 core conventions ratified by us are Forced Labour
Convention (No.29), Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No.105),
Equal Remuneration Convention (No.100) and Discrimination (Employment
Occupation) Convention (No.111), and the 3 priority conventions ratified
are Labour Inspection Convention (No.81), Employment Policy Convention
(No.122) and Tripartite Consultations (International Labour Standards)
(No.144). Even where for certain reasons where we may not be in a
position to ratify a Convention, we have generally voted in favour of
the Convention reserving its position as far as its future ratification
is concerned.
The journey of ILO over the last more than nine decades has been
eventful and full of important milestones. However, the primary function
of ILO is standard setting and their application. Many of the ILO
Conventions are outdated and need to be revised as identified by Cartier
Working Party. Even the core conventions have failed to achieve
universal ratification due to lack of flexibility. Our concern is that
ILO should undertake in-depth analysis to put in place a standards
strategy which encourages steps like progressive ratification of a
Convention. The choice of topics for future standard setting should be
widened according to the requirements of all ILO member states having
diverse socio-economic conditions. In the years to come, ILO must
maintain its leadership in the subjects related to labour since it has
the unique advantage of tripartite structure, transparency and the
ability to obtain inputs from real economy, Shri Kharge added.
Shri Kharge said the challenges being faced by the Member states on
Ratification and promotion of fundamental and governance ILO Conventions
are due to non-conformity with national laws and lack of technical
assistance. He said India’s stand is that the process of ratification of
these conventions should be a gradual one and adequate time should be
given to the Member States for creating favourable conditions for
ratification, taking into account the socio-economic realities of each
Member state. The link-up of the four Governance Conventions to the
Social Justice Declaration should be more of promotional in nature. We
should adopt a more pragmatic and realistic approach for ratification
and promotion of these conventions through creating awareness, building
capacities of the constituents, advocacy, training and technical
cooperation.
A power point presentation on the preparedness and attention paid by the
Government at the ILO meetings was also presented during the meeting.
The meeting was attended by following MPs: S/Shri Gurudas Dasgupts,
R.K.Singh Patel (SP), Ram Sunder Das (JDU), N.Peethambara (INC), Badri
Ram Jakhar (INC) and Shri MangalaKisan (BJD). Secretary Labour &
Employment Dr. M. Sarangi and senior Officials from the Ministry were
present during the meeting.
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