Minister of State for Labour & Employment Santosh Gangwar released a special stamp on the Labour Bureau on the occasion of centenary year celebrations of the Labour Bureau.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a special message to the Labour Bureau on this. In his message, Prime Minister Modi while congratulating Bureau on release of special stamp in its centenary year, also highlighted that for the last hundred years, Bureau has been generating labour, price and employment statistics with great allegiance and dedication. The message also stated that in keeping with the spirit of the mantra of “Shramev Jayate”, the Government committed to the welfare of labour has taken continuous and integrated steps for labour.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also opined that the Three historic labour codes will not only protect the interests of hardworking workers but will also form the basis for increasing productivity to higher levels. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also stated in his message that availability of reliable statistics on labour and labourers are vital for effective policy making and planning for welfare of labour. Given the significance of data and its increasing usage in various fields, the Bureau’s rich legacy of data generation needs to be fully capitalised for better policy making in the field of labour and employment. He also expressed firm belief that the Bureau will continue to upgrade its working by embracing latest technologies in the field of data collection, analysis and dissemination.
Prime Minister Modi also conveyed his best wishes for all the future endeavors of the Bureau.
Santosh Gangwar while addressing the participants said that, “the Bureau has also earned appreciation for successfully undertaking in record time, all the surveys & studies entrusted to it by the Governments from time to time. When employment data used to be available in our country only once in five years, the Bureau became the first ever Government organisation in the country to produce annual data on employment and unemployment through its annual All India Household Surveys on Employment Unemployment. The Bureau also conducted the first of its kind Quarterly Employment Surveys (QES) of enterprises which will be relaunched in a new format very soon. Bureau was also entrusted with the task of estimating employment generated under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) which it carried out in record time”.
“The Bureau has recently been entrusted with four All India surveys on migrant workers, domestic workers, employment generated by professionals and transport sector which will be launched by early March, 2020 and the results of these will be available by October, 2021”, said Santosh Gangwar.
Stating that the focus of the Ministry is on equal rights for organised and unorganised workers, he said, “Mehnat ko Samman, Adhikaar ek Saman’ represents the emphasis of our Government on equal rights for organized and unorganised sector workers. However, for any evidence based policy making for these workers ‘authentic data’ on employment in organised and unorganised sector enterprises is highly called for”.
He also informed that the Bureau will soon launch an ‘All India Quarterly Survey on Employment of Enterprises’ to address these data needs.
Santosh Gangwar also stressed upon preserving and strengthening the century old legacy of Bureau in labour, price and employment statistics which he added gives Bureau a definite edge over other data organisations in the country. While calling for greater use of Information technology in its working, the Minister said “I am very hopeful that the Bureau will transform its working in the times to come through greater use of information technology which will enable it to effectively meet the rapid demands for data in the field of labour and employment”.
Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Labour & Employment while addressing the participants elaborated that how starting with compilation of cost of living index numbers for workers and collection of administrative statistics in the 1940’s, over the years the mandate of Bureau has increased exponentially to now include collection and compilation of data on all possible aspects of labour. “Our Ministry which itself is one of the oldest and which aims at protecting and safeguarding the interests of workers, has immensely benefited from the services of the Bureau which provide valuable data for evidence based policy making”, he added. He also highlighted that given Bureaus rich experience in collection of statistics under the labour laws, it is proposed to designate Labour Bureau as the nodal agency for collection of statistical returns under all the four labour codes.
DPS Negi, Director General, Labour Bureau in his opening remarks emphasized on the relevance of labour statistics generated by Bureau, he said, “Labour Bureau has been consistently producing relevant labour statistics all through these years. The data so produced ranges from the price indices to capture inflation in goods and services consumed by labour, their socio economic conditions, statistics on industrial labour, wages, employment to data related to implementation of labour laws”.
He also states that the work related to launch of four All India surveys on Migrant workers, Domestic Labour, Employment generated by professionals and transport sector is underway in full swing. “The Bureau is also gearing up to take up its role as the nodal agency for collating statistical returns under all the four labour codes. Given our rich experience in compiling returns under the labour laws already, I am confident that we will live up to the expectations as far as data collection under the labour codes is concerned”, he said on the proposal of making the Bureau as nodal for collection of statistical returns under the four labour codes.
On the importance of the ‘All India Quarterly Survey on Employment of Enterprises’ which has been approved by the Ministry he said that the survey will provide comprehensive data on the employment numbers in both the organised and unorganised sectors.
