Civic body to provide insurance to labourers of unorganised sector

Each registered labourer would get a policy certificate from the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for which the PMC would pay Rs 50 while the state government's contribution would be Rs 50, with the Centre contributing Rs 100 annually towards the premium.

T G Cholke, additional labour commissioner, said it was a "very good initiative" by PMC to make available the Janshree Vima Yojana for labourers of unorganised sector. "The scheme has been made available for domestic servants and construction workers through their respective boards," he said, adding, the PMC implementation would cover all other labourers from the unorganised sector.

Nitin Pawar, secretary of Bandhkam Majdoor Sabha, said the PMC can resolve all the issues for making it a successful initiative and even would be able to collect the information of labourers from all sectors. "We have suggested that the PMC issue photo identity cards to the beneficiaries," he added.

Rescuing child labourers: No help from labour dept, say cops

The city police said they receive almost "no co-operation" from the labour department when it comes to raiding the establishments where children are working. Alleging that the procedural red tape many times gives time for employers to take the children away, the police believe that effective co-ordination would yield better results.

The Indian Express had recently reported that the Labour Commissioner's office for Pune district had rescued 108 children from work sites since 2007 and had registered over 95 FIRs with local police stations in those cases. While the number was far less than the 1,100 complaints that a helpline run by an NGO in Pune had received in the same period.

In 2011, the Social Security Cell of the city police crime branch had rescued 13 child labourers from hotels and eateries. About 30 child labourers have been rescued by individual police stations. Senior inspector Bhanupratap Barge of the cell said, "We raid locations when we get inputs from sources. As per the norms, the labour department officials are expected to assist us. If there is better coordination, the action would be more effective."

... contd.

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