V. V. Giri National Labour Institute
(An Autonomous Body of Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India)
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V. V. Giri National Labour Institute (An Autonomous Body of Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India) |
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National Workshop on Social Security for the Urban poor and informal Sector Workers (March 29-30, 2010) | |||
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Concept Note Background: In the past few decades, urbanisation and urban growth have accelerated in many developing countries.Population estimates indicate that the growth in world's urban population will continue to rise and reach almost 5 billion by 2030. Much of this urbanization is predicted to take place in the developing world, with Asia and Africa having the largest urban populations (World Bank, 2008). The urban population in these two continents will double ina period of 30 years. Asia has been witnessing the triple dynamics of growth, rapid urbanisation and growing poverty. While many Asian contries witnessed higher economic growth, the growth pattern brought about enormous disparities across and within nations. India has shared the growth pattern and rapid urbanisation with some of the fastest growing regions in Asia. The country has witnessed around 8% growth in GDP in the last couple of years and planned to achieve a target of 9% growth by the end of 11th plan period. India's urban population is also increasing at a faster rate than its total population. With over 575 million people, India will have 41% of its population living in cities and towns by 2030 A.D from the present level of 286 million and 28%. Economic development and urbanisation are closely linked. In India, cities contribute over 55% to the country's GDP and urbanisation has been recognised as an important component of economic growth. With India becoming increasingly globalized and urban, there is also an increase in the number of poor people living here. As per the latest NSSO survey reports thyere are over 80 million poor people living in the cities and the towns of India. The Slum Population is also increasing and at present it is over 61.80 million people (TCPO, 2001). It is interesting to note that that the ratio of urban poverty in some of the larger states is higher than that of the rural poverty leading to the phenomenon of 'Urbanisation of Poverty'. Urban poverty poses the problems of housing and shelter, water, sanitation, health, education, social security and livelihoods along with special needs of vulnerable groups like women children and aged people. Poor people live in slums which are overcrowded, often polluted and lack basic, civic amenities like clean drinking water, sanitation and health facilities. Most of them are involved in informal sector activities where there is constant threat of eviction , removal, confiscation of goods and almost non-existent social security cover. With growing poverty and slums, Indian cities have been grappling with the challenges of making the cities suistanable i.e inclusive, productive, efficient and manageable. The Urban poor face challenges of low skills, low wages, unemployment and under-employment, a lack of social insurance and unsatisfactory working conditions. The urban casual informal workers because of lack of adequate education and skills are left behind in the growing urban employment opportunities. Moreover, the heavy reliance on the cash economy means that the urban poor are particularly vulnerable to shocks. While the informal sector provides employment for many that cannot enter the formal labor market and supplies goods and services typically not offered by the formal sector, it is also characterized by relatively poor working condition, lack of social insurance, operating outside the legal system and is more vulnerable to economic fluctuations, which particularly affects the poor. However, social security provisions till the recent times have focussed on growth oriented measures and formal workforce centric models , thereby leaving out the vast section of workers, especially in developing countries from any kind of formal social protection. The successful experience of countries like Chile, Cuba, Jamaica and China during the last few decades of support-led social security measures under lower growth rates has shown that direct public support rather than income growth can also lead to successful social security interventions(Dreze and Sen, 1989). These experiences have further emphasised the need for developing countries to adopt need-based mechanism to reduce the vulnerability of tyhe large majority of the population who are outside th formal workforce. Although several welfare schemes for providing social security to the urban population has been devised such as Shahari Rozgar Yojana, Ntional Family Benefit Scheme(NFBS), Universial Health Insurance Scheme(UHIs), etc, yet the existing welfare schemes are widely scattered and fragmented. Many of the problems of urban poverty are rooted in a complexity of resource and capacity constraints,inadequate Government policies at both the central and local level, and a lack of planning for urban growth and management. Given the high growth projections for most cities in developing countries, the challenges of urban poverty and more broadly of city management will only worsen if not addressed more adequately Justification for the Workshop: In order to devise social security for the urban poor informal workers, a multidimensional approach is required wherein the basic needs for a decent living of the poor and marginal sections are met. This should cover a range of interventions related to education, health, economic policy, labour markets, infrastructure, finance, environmental protection and social protection. This will require an overall investing in the human, economic and social capital of the urban poor, which will translate into opportunities for growth and poverty reduction. Programs aimed at mproving living conditions in slums through extending affordable services to slum dwellers and investing in upgrading can have enormous benefits in health outcomes, reducing environmental and other risks, as well as in generating new opportunities for income generation. The strategy calls for going beyond important national level policies for education, employment, and safety nets to also include policies to address city-level factors related to limiting secure land tenure and access to adequate housing, credit, transport, health care and other services. It also calls for addressing constraints to small-scale and informal sector enterprises, thereby facilitating the empowerment of the urban poor by providing them social protection. It is in this regard a two-day National Workshop on Social Security for Urban Poor and Informal Sector Workers is being conducted by V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA, during 29-30th March 2010, in order to draw inputs from different stakeholders such as academicians, policy makers, workers and employers organisations, non-governmental organizations, and field activists with regard to providing social security to urban poor and informal sector workers. The Workshop will broadly focus on the following themes:
Co-ordinator(s) of the Workshop: Dr. Ruma Ghosh & Anoop Satpathy Important Dates Last Date of Submission of Abstracts: 25th February 2010, Communication regarding acceptance of the Workshop: 28th February, 2010 Last Date of Submission of Full Papers: 20th March 2010 Contact for workshop: Abstracts and full papers of the workshop may be submitted through email at nerc.vvgnli@gmail.com |
