L-20 summit: Guv urges participants to keep human touch in all deliberations

Underlining the significance of the issues to be deliberated at the L-20 summit, mainly social security of labourers and women’s safety at workplace, the governor said it was a pride moment for him and Bihar to welcome the delegates, who together represents around 75 % of the total population.

Patna: Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar during the inauguration of the two-day Labour –20 (L-20) summit of group of 20 nations (G-20) in state capital Patna on Thursday urged the participants to keep in mind the human touch while dealing with the deliberations on issues of social security and women’s safety at the workplace across the world.

Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar inauguraties the L-20 summit in Patna on Thursday. (HT Photo)

“The deliberations will be futile or of no value, if we forget to give human touch to every aspect of the issues,” said Arlekar, while addressing the delegates of 28 countries, including eight other nations accommodated by India.

Underlining the significance of the issues to be deliberated at the L-20 summit, mainly social security of labourers and women’s safety at workplace, the governor said it was a pride moment for him and Bihar to welcome the delegates, who together represents around 75 % of the total population. “The history of Bihar goes back to thousands of years. It is a land of knowledge, where students from different nationalities used to seek knowledge in Nalanda university, Vaishali too is considered as the sheet of democracy,” the governor said.

Arlekar exhorted the participants to look into every issue in a holistic way and come out with a pragmatic solution to address them in a way that also suited human values.

Hiranmaye Pandaya, president of the L20 summit, while welcoming the delegates said, “I want to assure you that L-20 will not only represent the voice of G-20 nations but it will surely also represent the voice of those nations whose representative are not in the attendance,” said Pandya.

Altogether 173 delegates from 28 countries are participating in the conference. Apart from the G-20 countries, India, as part of its presidency, has invited Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Nepal and United Arab Emirates to join the meeting.

“After extensive discussion in the inception meeting of L-20 held in Amritsar from March 19- 21, 2023, a joint statement was issued on two subjects; social security and international portability of social security fund and women and future of work,” Pandya said, adding that a joint statement of business and labour group of G20 would be worked out after the deliberations to be presented before the ministerial round of discussion next month.

Earlier, the discussions labour related issues were held at 11 cities across the country, in which officials from the central government and the state labour departments, trade union leaders, labour and development economists, activists from the national and international labour organisations participated, said Pandya.

Later in the technical session, the participants discussed on the draft of universal policy for social security draft on the context of G-20 and a majority of them favoured the idea of including the agenda that were identified by the International Labour Organization. Regarding social protection, the participants said that only 46.9% of the work force could get it in their respective countries. “Old age pension has got maximum coverage in G-20 countries,” said one of the participants.

In this session, chairman of workers education board Virjesh Upadhyay said that social security should not be considered only the responsibility of the government and industry. “This should be achieved with the participation of the society,” added Upadhyay.

In the same session, National Front of Indian Trade Unions (NFITU) vice president Indira Saxena said that regulation should be strengthened at the international level and added that India was taking initiative in this direction by creating a portal.