WFCs for social security to workers in unorganised sector

215 centres opened in state; data of 62,000 workers collated

Observing that social security schemes are yet to reach eligible beneficiaries completely, deputy commissioner P S Vastrad said the worker facilitation centres (WFCs) would help officials and facilitators take government programmes to the doorstep of workers in the unorganised sector.

He was speaking at a programme organised to launch the logo of WFCs here on Tuesday. He said WFCs would ensure that officials and facilitators would visit areas, where workers from the unorganised sector work, and collect information first-hand.

Speaking on the occasion, programme coordinator K S Manjunath said that labour department has brought this scheme in order to provide a single window to help unorganised workers in the state to gain access to variety of social security benefits.

The scheme is being taken up by department of labour and GIZ (Deutsche Gessellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit).

Mentioning that government facilities should be easily accessible to people, he said facilitators should forward the applications of eligible beneficiaries to the concerned officials. The deputy commissioner and zilla panchayat chief executive officers should guide the programme, he added.

Expressing concern on the progress of the scheme in the district, he said the scheme was faring better in Bellary due to a concerted effort. The scheme mandates WFCs to identify and facilitate registration of unorganised workers, disseminate information on various schemes, provide support to unorganised workers in filling, processing and forwarding applications to access social security benefits provided by the government.

WFCs, which have been set-up in two taluks each in Bangalore, Bellary, Dakshina Kannada, Gulbarga and Mysore, have already collected data of 62,000 unorganised worker households. In Mysore district, the project is being implemented in Mysore and Hunsur taluks. The software used for the project is also being used to find out if any of the households have access to social security benefits.

The software is used to store required documents to facilitate access to various government schemes such as old age, widow and disability pensions, Construction Workers Welfare Fund, National Pension Scheme, Aam Admi Bima Yojna, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and Vajpayee Arogyashree.

ZP CEO G Sathyavathi, programme director Hans Christopher Amman, Namratha Sharma and others were present.