India assumed the presidency for G-20 from Indonesia on December 01, 2023 and shall hand it over to Brazil soon as per the rotation policy of the G-20. The G-20 is organised under different tracks namely Finance, Sherpa Track and Engagement groups. The Finance track focuses only on the financial issues under different sub-themes. The working groups sees select Ministries from G-20 countries coming together to discuss issues within the purview of separate initries. The engagement groups have been added to ensure representation of the civil society/ different pressure groups in the society and includes youth 20, Labour 20, Business 20, Science 20. These groups are supposed to bring in civil society perspectives to the forefront and make recommendations/suggestions to the Government.
BMS Shows Direction
Within the Indian presidency of the G20, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) was accorded the chair for the Labour-20 (L20) as per norms on account of it being the largest (by numbers) and most responsible trade union in the country. The L20 is an integral part of the G-20 and represents interests of workers at the G20 level. The forum tries to bring together trade unionists from the G-20 countries representing 66 per cent of the population and around 75 per cent of Global GDP to discuss issues concerning the working people and population in general that transcend borders. We invited all the central trade unions and larger independent unions to become part of the secretariat and support and guide the processes. An office/Secretariat was set-up in Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and inaugurated on February 24, 2023, where persons from different central trade unions, representatives of Business 20, prominent persons from civil society organisations were present and congratulated BMS on assuming the presidency for Labour-20. Dattopant Thengadi Foundation was adopted as the knowledge partner for the Labour-20.
BMS picked some very important themes that plague the developing/underdeveloped world but also concern the developed world to be the themes of the Labour-20. Here we must also appreciate the Employment Working Group (Ministry of Labour and Employment) and the Business 20, the groups we had to work in sync with for picking deeply relevant issues for discussion within their own groups. The L20 picked the following themes/sub-themes for opening the discussion at the inception meeting on March 19, 20 in Amritsar Punjab: ‘Universalisation of Social Security’ and ‘Women and the Future of work’. The key priority areas were divided into different sub-themes that were also cross-cutting at times namely: International Migration: Portability of Social Security Funds, Changing World of Work: New Employment Opportunities and Difficulties in G-20 countries and Skill Development: Roles and Responsibilities of Stakeholders.
The inception meeting was attended by a total of 122 persons from ten countries in physical and virtual mode as per convenience of attendees. Two draft statements, one each on the priority issues, were adopted in the inception meeting itself. The Minister of Labour and Employment joined the event virtually and addressed the guests.
The ‘Janbhagidari’ helped us take our issues to the ground level, where we received valuable inputs from the ground. The G20 under the Indian presidency has actually been the people’e G20. BMS and other trade unions have separately organised more than 800 ‘Janbhagidari’ events, some of which saw participation of more than 5,000 persons. One of the ‘Janbhagidari’ events held in Kerala was exclusively for women and was attended by more than 5,000 women. n
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