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I.L.O. endorses India’s social security cover at 64%: Mandaviya
The country is ‘fully committed’ to fulfilling all ‘ILO mandates’, as a member country, including decent work conditions, social justice and ways to formalise the economy, he said at the plenary address
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has “acknowledged” an expansion in India’s social protection coverage from 19% in 2015 to 64.3% in the current year and these updated figures are now part of the ILOSTAT database, Union labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya said at ILO’s 113th session in Geneva on Wednesday.
The country is “fully committed” to fulfilling all “ILO mandates”, as a member country, including decent work conditions, social justice and ways to formalise the economy, the minister said at the plenary address.
At the 2025 session of the highest decision-making body of the UN labour agency, which will conclude on June 13, member-states and delegates are voting to consider new additions to the ILO’s mandates, which are aimed at protecting workers’ rights and enhancing their welfare.
The ILO is exploring “possible new international standards on the protection of workers against biological hazards in the working environment, decent work in the gig and platform economy, and innovative approaches to promoting transitions from the informal to the formal economy”, according to the official agenda of the conference.
“We have made particular progress in the formalisation of employment, resulting in the creation of 7.5 crore (70.5 million) jobs in the last seven years,” the minister said. Formal-sector jobs are those that offer social security and regular wages through written terms and conditions.
The government is in the process of taking “concrete steps” to bring gig and platform workers into the mainstream and the number of gig workers in India is expected to touch 23.5 million by 2030, he said, adding that it was important to maintain the “flexibility” of the gig sector, which is its key feature.
The labour ministry is currently working to devise a social-security scheme for India’s estimated 7.7 million gig workers in consultation with online and e-commerce platforms.
“Today, 940 million people in India have some form of social security. Apart from this, crores of people are receiving non-cash benefits through food and health schemes,” Mandaviya told the conference.
