A HISTORICAL PROFILE

1854 Public Works Department created.

Location

Ministry of Labour is located in Shram Shakti Bhawan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi. Its offices are located partly in first, third, fifth and sixth floors of Shram Shakti Bhawan, partly in Jaisalmer House, Jamnagar hutments, Asaf Ali Road and Pusa Road. (Approach to Shram Shakti Bhawan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi is given in a road map on the back cover.)

v Labour Policy (including wage policy) and legislation.

v Safety, Health and Welfare of Labour.

v Social Security of Labour.

v Policy relating to special target groups such as Child and Women Labour.

v Industrial Relations and enforcement of Labour Laws in the Central sphere.

v Adjudication of Industrial Disputes through Central Government Industrial Tribunals-cum-Labour Courts and National Industrial Tribunals.

v Workers’ Education.

v Labour and Employment Statistics.

v Emigration of Labour for Employment Abroad.

v Employment Services and Vocational Training.

v Administration of Central Labour & Employment Services.

v International Co-operation in Labour and Employment matters.

v Office of Directorate General, Employment and Training, New Delhi (DGE&T).

v Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), New Delhi (CLC[C]).

v Labour Bureau, Chandigarh & Shimla.

v Office of Directorate General, Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes, Mumbai (DGFASLI).

v Office of Directorate General, Mines Safety, Dhanbad.

v Offices of the Welfare Commissioners at Allahabad, Bangalore, Bhilwara, Bhubaneshwar, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Jabalpur, Karma and Nagpur.

v Central Government Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Courts No. 1 and 2 at Dhanbad and No. 1 Mumbai, and No. 2 at Mumbai and at Asansol, Calcutta, Jabalpur, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Kanpur, Bangalore, Jaipur, Nagpur, Lucknow, Chennai, Bhubaneshwar and Hyderabad.

v Board of Arbitration, New Delhi.

v Employees’ State Insurance Corporation, New Delhi. (ESIC).

v Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, New Delhi. (EPFO).

v V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh, (VVGNLI).

v Central Board for Workers’ Education, Nagpur. (CBWE).

v Laying down the policies, standards, norms and guidelines in the area of vocational training throughout the country.

v Co-ordinating employment services.

v Prevention, investigation and settlement of industrial disputes in the Central sphere.

v Enforcement of awards and settlements.

v Implementation of labour laws in industries and establishments in respect of which, Central Government is the appropriate Government.

v Verification of membership of Unions affiliated to the Central Organisations of Workers for giving them representation on national and international conferences and committees.

v Fixation and revision of minimum wages by notifications under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 in scheduled employments in respect of which Central Government is the appropriate Government.

v Safety, health and welfare of workers in factories and docks

v Coordinating implementation of the Factories Act, 1948, by the State Governments and formulation of model rules

v Administration of the Dock Workers (Safety, Health and Welfare) Act, 1986

v Undertaking research in industrial safety, occupational health, industrial hygiene, industrial psychology and industrial physiology

v Providing training, mainly in the field of industrial safety and health, including a diploma course of one year duration in industrial safety which is an essential qualification for appointment of Safety Officers in factories

v Regular in-service training of Factory Inspectors

v Collection, compilation, analysis and publication of statistical data on labour related aspects like employment, wages, earnings, industrial relations, working conditions etc.

v Compilation and publication of the Consumer Price Index Numbers for industrial and agricultural workers

v Rendering necessary assistance to the State Governments in conducting training programmes in Labour Statistics at State/District/Unit levels

v Enforcement of the provisions of the Mines Act, 1952 and the Rules and Regulations framed under the Act and,

v The provisions of the Indian Electricity Act, 1910, as applicable to mines and oil fields.

v Providing welfare facilities to the workers employed in the mica, limestone, dolomite, iron ore, manganese and chrome ore mines and in the beedi and cinema industries.

v Implementation of Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948, which provides for medical care and treatment to insured persons and their families.

v Providing assistance in terms of benefits during sickness and maternity, compensation for employment injury, pensions for dependants on the death of workers due to employment injury, etc. to employees covered under the ESIC Act.

Responsible for:

v Administration of Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.

v Implementation of the schemes of Provident Fund, Family Pension and Deposit Linked Insurance for the benefit of the workers covered under the scheme.

v Administration of Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995 which has come into existence on 16.11.95.

Responsible for:

v Research, training and education on various aspects of labour both in the organised and unorganised sectors.

v The mandates include:

v Training of workers in techniques of trade unionism

v Bringing about consciousness among workers about their rights, duties and responsibilities

v Conducting programmes for rural workers’ education and functional adult education

Responsible for:

v Adjudication of the industrial disputes in organisations for which the Central Government is the appropriate Government.

v Seventeen Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Courts have been set up under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

v Compulsory arbitration of disputes between the Government employees and the Government on pay and allowances, weekly hours of work and leave of a class or grade of employees.

l Trade Unions Act, 1926

l Industrial Employment Standing Order Act, 1946.

l Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.

l Payment of Wages Act, 1936

l Minimum Wages Act, 1948

l Payment of Bonus Act, 1965.

l Factories Act, 1948.

l Plantation Labour Act, 1951.

l Mines Act, 1952.

l Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees’ (Conditions of Service and Misc. Provisions) Act, 1955.

l Merchant Shipping Act, 1958.

l Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961.

l Beedi & Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966.

l Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970.

l Sales Promotion Employees Act, 1976.

l Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979.

l Dock Workers (Safety, Health & Welfare) Act, 1986.

l Building & Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment & Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.

l   Maternity Benefit Act, 1961

l   Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.

l   Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976

l   Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986

l   Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933

l   Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923.

l   Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948.

l   Employees’ Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.

l   Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972.

l During the period of three decades since the setting up of the First National Commission on Labour, there has been a sizeable increase in the magnitude of labour force because of the pace of industrialisation and urbanisation.

l After the implementation of the new economic policy in 1991, rapid changes have taken place in the economic environment of the country, which have in turn brought about changes in the domestic industrial climate and labour market.

l Changes have occurred at the work place in the industry and character of employment, in hours of work and in the scenario of industrial relations.

l With liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation new forces have been unleashed into the functioning of the labour market.

l The approach during IXth Five Year Plan has been rationalisation, simplification and integration of labour laws and labour policy to bring them in tune with the needs of the changing socio-economic scenario. Also, the existing legislative framework would be strengthened to protect the interests of labour in the unorganised sector.

l The main thrust areas in the IXth Five Year Plan include: reorienting the role of the Employment Exchanges in view of the newly emerging labour market scenario; multi dimensional approach with involvement of voluntary organisations for improving economic and working conditions of the workers in the unorganised sector; integrated approach to rehabilitate bonded labour; multi-pronged approach for progressive elimination of child labour; improving training and skill development of women workers; evolving integrated comprehensive scheme on social security etc.

l The total plan allocation for the IXth Five Year Plan is Rs. 792.12 crores.

l There are 144 plan schemes consisting of 130 central schemes and 14 centrally sponsored schemes.

l The Second National Commission on Labour has been constituted to look into the rationalisation of existing labour laws and also to suggest an umbrella legislation for the unorganised labour.

l The recommendations of Jain Commission on Administrative Reforms on Rationalisation and Modification of Labour Laws are under examination.

l A Plan scheme has been proposed to strengthen Employment Market Information Scheme with the objective of collecting comprehensive labour market information, conducting area-specific studies to assess the availability of skills and modernising selected Employment Exchanges through computerisation. The Planning Commission has approved the scheme in principle.

l The pilot scheme "Housing for Hamals" has been recently evaluated and the evaluation report is under consideration of the Ministry and the Planning Commission for continuance of the scheme.

l Existing Plan schemes have also been reviewed at the time of mid-term appraisal by the Ministry and modifications in the Centrally sponsored scheme for rehabilitation of bonded labour and in another scheme pertaining to industrial relations regarding linkage of Industrial Relations (IR) Desks with the CGITs and office of RLCs(Central) have been proposed.

l The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved continuance of National Child Labour Projects, permitted to increase their number from 76 to 100 and allocated a sum of Rs. 261 crores during the Ninth Plan period.

n Presently the CIRM deals with about 14,000 industrial disputes annually and settles more than one third of these through mediation and conciliation. During 1998-99 roughly 6,000 cases of industrial disputes could not be settled through the conciliation process, out of which about 60 per cent of cases were referred for adjudication to various Industrial Tribunals-cum-Labour Courts and the remaining were declined reference. The pendency of cases awaiting reference, which was more than one year during 1997-98, has been reduced to merely four months currently.

n There are 17 Central Government Industrial Tribunals-cum-Labour Courts set-up in different parts of the country at present which are required to adjudicate labour disputes in a time-bound manner. Around 1500 awards passed by CGITs/Labour Courts/Industrial Tribunals during 1998-99 were notified by the Government.

n The Labour Relations Monitoring Unit at the Centre continues to monitor industrial relations throughout the country with the objective of taking timely action through preventive mediation for resolving industrial disputes and containing general industrial unrest. Data on labour unrest have been computerised which show that the number of mandays lost as a result of strikes and lockouts has registered a declining trend during the nineties, as compared to that of eighties. Number of workers laid-off or retrenched has also been reduced in recent years.

n With a view to forging closer co-operation between workers, management and Government and to encourage them to find common solution to the problems, seven Industrial Tripartite Committees were set up by the Ministry in the Sugar, Cotton Textiles, Jute, Engineering, Chemicals, Electricity Generation and Distribution and Road Transport sectors. Meetings of the Industrial Tripartite Committee on Sugar Industry and the Cotton Textiles Industry were convened during 1999.

n Taking into consideration the emerging global economic situation and the need to make the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, Trade Unions Act, 1926 and the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 more relevant, some infirmities in the legislations have been identified, which require amendment by the Parliament. The Ministry will endeavour to bring about these amendments as early as possible.

u Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act,           1952.

u Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948.

u Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923.

u Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 and

u Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972.

u   Factories Act, 1948.

u   Mines Act, 1972 and

u   Dock Workers (Safety, Health & Welfare) Act, 1986.

l Prime Minister’s Shram Award.

l Vishwakarma Award Scheme.

l National Safety (Mines) Award.

Child Labour

v India has all along followed a positive and pro-active policy towards elimination of child labour.

v This Policy is reflected in Article 24 of the Constitution and in the laws which have been enacted from time to time.

v The Policy, however, was not in favour of absolute prohibition of child labour but in favour of combination of prohibition and regulation.

v Employment of Children Act, 1938 which was rather restrictive in scope and content was replaced by Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986.

v National Policy on Child Labour was formulated soon thereafter in August, 1987 with the following objectives:

v National Child Labour Projects (NCLP) were launched in 1988-89 at 9 pockets of concentration of child labour to release children from work and to rehabilitate them through education, nutrition and check-up of health. This was subsequently raised to 12.

v This strategy rested on adopting a selective, gradual and sequential approach to rehabilitate children released from work, starting with the most hazardous and proceeding to less hazardous and ending up with rehabilitation of non-hazardous industries/occupations/processes.

v In August, 1994, a high-level decision was taken to intensify the process of rehabilitation by opening additional number of NCLPs. Through in-depth consultation with Collectors of a few selected districts (62) in a Conference in September, 1995, the number of NCLPs was raised from 12 to 76.

v The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in January, 1999, while approving the continuance of the NCLP approach during the 9th Plan period, agreed to raise the number to 100 and approved a total outlay of Rs. 261 crores.

v As of date, 85 NCLPs have been operational with 1.8 lakh children enrolled in about 2000 special schools being manned by 2500 teachers. An integrated approach for rehabilitation of children released from work through education, nutrition, health check-up and skill training is being adopted in these special schools.

v Simultaneously, efforts have been made in the following directions:

v A full-fledged Division for Child Labour with a Joint Secretary in-charge has been made operational from 19.3.98. Since then it has been possible to undertake a host of activities in the direction of elimination of child labour and full rehabilitation of children released from work. Steps have been initiated in the direction of ratification of the ILO Convention No.182 on elimination of the worst forms of child labour, as also for introducing a uniform age of entry into employment. Efforts are on to sign a fresh memorandum of understanding with ILO for continuance of IPEC activities in India beyond December, 1999.

v A separate Cell for women labour which was set up in 1975, is functioning in the Ministry to pay special attention to the problems of women labour.

v    The Cell is responsible for the formulation of policies that seek to remove the handicaps under which women work, to strengthen their bargaining position, to improve their wages and working conditions, to enhance their skills and open up new avenues of employment opportunities for them.

Data on Women Labour

v    Women labour comprises a section of the working population who are exposed to exploitation. The majority of women labour work in the unorganised sector for low wages and at low levels of skills.

v   Though, in absolute terms the number of women workers during the last four decades have more than doubled from 40 million in 1951 to 90 million in 1991, the percentage of women labour to total workforce has declined marginally. In 1951 it was 28.98 per cent and in 1991 it was 26.80 per cent.

v    While there has been marginal decline in the annual rate of growth of female employment, the annual rate of growth of employment of educated women is substantially higher.

v    The employment trends also show that the women workers are taking up more and more employment in the services sector rather than in agriculture and allied sectors and in mines and queries.

v    However, the female work participation rate continues to lag behind that of males.

l Declining trend in work participation rate.

l No significant rise in employment.

l Lack of organisation.

l Adverse effect of mechanisation on women’s employment.

l Absence of support service in most sectors.

l Non-payment of wages and or equal wages.

l Economic and sexual exploitation of women workers

l A Central Advisory Committee has been set up under the Act to advise the Government on providing increasing employment opportunities for women and generally reviewing the steps taken for effective implementation of the Act. Similar Committees have also been set up by the State Governments and Administrations of the Union Territories.

l The Central Government and most of the State Governments have also appointed authorities under the Act for enforcing the provisions of the Act.

l Four Social Welfare Organisations have been recognised by the Centre for the purpose of filing complaints in courts against employers for violation of the provisions of the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.

l The enforcement of Act in Central sphere and by the States in states’ sphere is being monitored through periodical reports.

l To take care of the health and safety aspect, the employment of women below ground in mines is prohibited under the Mines Act, 1952.

l Women cannot be employed in hazardous processes in factories, as per the provisions of the Factories Act, 1948.

l Separate washing places, latrines and urinals have to be provided to women workers under the Factories Act, Plantation Labour Act, Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act and Beedi & Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act.

l Special provisions for women relating to child care, maternity benefit, working hours and their representation on Welfare Boards have also been made in the recently enacted Building and other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996.

p The concept of welfare funds has evolved over a period of time, out of a desire to provide certain basic facilities to specifically deprived categories of workers, by raising a corpus out of levy of cess on employers for the benefit of workers.

p The Ministry of Labour is currently administering 5 Welfare Funds for beedi workers, cine workers and certain categories of mine workers. These funds have been set up under the following Acts of Parliament:

p These Funds are used for the following purposes:

p The welfare measures for the above five categories of workers are provided through nine Regional Offices headed by Welfare Commissioners at Hyderabad, Bangalore, Allahabad, Calcutta, Bhilwara, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Jabalpur and Karma.

p In addition, Ministry of Labour provides health care facilities through 12 hospitals and over 276 dispensaries located in different parts of the country under the Welfare Funds for beedi, cine and non-coal mine workers.

p It is the constant endeavour of the Government to bring more and more workers under the ambit of Labour Welfare Funds through statutory measures.

Background

u Directorate General of Employment & Training (DGE&T) was created in July 1945 for the purpose of resetting demobilized Defence Services Personnel and discharged War Workers in civil life.

u Subsequently, the scope of the Directorate General was extended to cover employment service to all categories of job-seekers in early 1948, and the training services to all civilians in 1950.

u Day to day administration of the Employment Exchanges and Industrial Training Institutes is with the concerned State Government.

Employment Service

u To establish in collaboration with State Governments national policies, standards and procedures to be followed by the States.

u To collect and disseminate information concerning employment/unemployment and prescribe uniform reporting procedures.

Vocational Training

u Craftsmen training in ITIs (CTS) and Apprenticeship Training (as per Apprentice Act, 1961) are the two major schemes. Both these programmes are supervised by national level tripartite bodies.

u Development of training programme at the national level, particularly in the areas concerning common policies, common standards and procedures, including trade testing, certification, research and development in vocational training is the major objective of vocational training.

u Training of crafts instructors, training of foremen/supervisors, preparation of instructional media packages are the areas of major activities of DGE&T.

Statutory & Non-Statutory Provisions

u Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959

u Apprentice Act, 1961

u Central Apprenticeship Council

u National Council for Vocational Training

u Working Group on National Employment Service

u Total population as per 1991 Census  846.30 Million

u Total projected population as on 1.3.2000  996.94 Million

u Estimated employment as on 1.7.1997 354.40 Million

u Estimated unemployment as on 1.7.1997 7.40 Million

u Estimated under-employment 21.00 Million

u Number of job seekers registered with Employment Exchanges 40.00 Million

u About 6.4 lakh seating capacity is available for imparting Industrial Training in various trades through 4,086 Government and private Industrial Training Institutes, located all over the country. There are 661 ITIs/wings of ITIs exclusively for training of women having an annual capacity of about 44,200. In addition, 11 Central Government Institutions for women located in different regions have about 1,920 seats.

u About 2.32 lakh seats are available for apprenticeship training, out of which only about 1.6 lakh seats are presently utilised.

u 17 Vocational Rehabilitation Centres (VRC) for people with disabilities have been set up by DGE&T in different parts of the country. Ministry of Labour will strive to have a minimum of one VRC in each State/Union Territory to assist people with disabilities, and also strengthen the existing VRCs by providing Skill Training Workshops and making them barrier-free.

Issues Relating to Employment

u DGE&T co-ordinates and monitors the employment generation taking place in the economy. It, however, does not have a say in factors which stimulate or inhibit employment growth.

u 8 to 9 per cent of the total employed are in the organised sector while the unorganised sector dominates the employment scenario. There is an increase in the incidence of casual employment and reduction in percentage of self-employment and of wage employment.

u Growth of regular salaried employment for the youth in organised manufacturing sector, in any significant manner, may not be feasible. Therefore, self-employment and flexible training for multiple skills have to be encouraged in a big way for economic rehabilitation of the unemployed youth.

u One of the consequences of globalisation and increased competition is the shedding of workers, particularly from the manufacturing sector. The work opportunities for rationalised, retrenched and displaced workers have to be mainly identified in unorganised and informal economic sector.

u Employment Exchanges have to be more pro-active in relation to private sector and the needs of small scale industry.

u Shift in emphasis of Employment Exchanges will take place from placement to vocational guidance and counselling.

Issues Relating to Vocational Training

u Vocational Skill Training Policy to be formulated and National Vocational Skill Training System to be restructured.

u Apprenticeship training is to be encouraged further and feasibility of amending Apprentices Act, 1961 to be examined to enhance its relevance and functioning in the context of current industrial requirements.

u Participation of women in vocational skill training has to be promoted.

u National Renewal Fund (NRF) is being administered by Department of Industrial Development; DGE&T is one of the nodal agencies of that department for imparting counselling, retraining and redeployment.

u Benchmarking of skills and competencies of workers to be periodically benchmarked, preferably by respective bodies of Industry and Commerce.

u Promotion of multiple skills development and service sector oriented-training.

n NIC-MOL Computer Centre and Local Area Network providing over 200 terminal connectivity to sections and officers.

n Consultancy and Advice on IT matters referred to LISD/NIC.

n In-house training to officers and staff.

n E-mail and Internet Services.

n Ministry of Labour Home Page

n Application Systems design and development for identified areas under ILIS segments.

n Industrial unrest monitoring system.

n Retrenchment, lay off and Closure decisions support system.

n Failure of Conciliation (FOC) information system.

n Central trade union membership verification system (CLC[C]) office.

n Labour laws enforcement monitoring system (CLC[C]) office.

n Industrial disputes monitoring system (CLC[C]) office.

Special Labour Group

n Enforcement of child labour laws monitoring.

n Recruiting Agents information system.

n IMPROVE and CONTACT application packages developed by NIC/CGA (Controller of Accounts office).

n Pay processing and other generalised packages.

n Computerised Accounts Preparing System (CAPS/CAMPS/CAMPS 95) (Subscriber Accounts lip, On-line accounts information, Archiving, MIS reports).

n Computerised Receipt Accounting System (CRAS).

n Computerised Payments Accounting System (CPAS). (Receipt and Payment side of cash books, classified summary, monitoring reports).

n Computerised Employees’ Pension System

n Computerised Registration of Insured Persons (CRIPS)

n Exit Re-entry of Insured Persons (ERIP)

n Actuarial Information System

n Medical Stores Inventory Management System (MEDSIM)

n OPD Registration and statistics maintenance system.

n Employment Exchange Computerisation

n   Central Employment Exchange computerisation

n   Apprenticeship management

n   Curriculum Management

n   Affiliation

n   Certification

n   Progress monitoring for women’s occupational training.

v The V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, an autonomous body of the Ministry of Labour, set up in July, 1974 is a premier Institute of Labour Research, Training and Education.

v Since its inception the Institute has endeavoured through research, training and publications to reach all the concerned sections on various aspects of labour both in the organised and unorganised sectors. The focus of such endeavours has been on the transfer of academic insight and understanding related to all the aspects of labour for application to policy formulation, legislation and action to ensure a just and better place for labour in an egalitarian and democratic society.

v Research occupies a primary place in the activities of the Institute. The subject of research comprises a broad spectrum of labour related issues and problems, in both the organised and the unorganised sectors. The Institute continues to place greater emphasis on the problems and issues of labour in unorganised sectors in general and the more disadvantaged among these such as child labour, women labour and rural labour, in particular.

v Action research is a thrust area of research activities. The Institute undertakes such research projects in rural areas to study problems of rural workers, understand and analyse them, examine and explore possible ways, means and methods to organise rural labourers. The Institute has pioneered an education-cum-motivation programme, popularly known as Rural Labour Camps for conscienti-sation and empowerment of the rural labour. Over the years, this experiment has been carried out with the objective of enhancing the capability of the rural workers so that they are able to effectively participate in the development process.

v The Institute offers education and training to Labour Administrators and officials of the Central and State Governments, Managers and Officers of the Public and Private Organisations, Trade Union Leaders and Organisers of the Organised and Unorganised Sectors and Researchers, Trainers, field workers and others concerned with labour issues.

v As the Staff College of the Ministry of Labour, the Institute organises training programmes to strengthen the labour administration machinery, both at the central and the state levels.

v The Institute is also actively involved in research and training in the area of child labour. The National Resource Centre on Child Labour (NRCCL) has been established at the Institute with the objective of developing the capabilities of individuals, groups and organisations working towards the elimination of the problems of child labour.

v The Institute has initiated an Integrated Labour History Research Programme, which focuses, inter alia, on integrating and initiating research on labour history and is perhaps the first of its kind in the country. Setting up of an Archives of Indian Labour, is at the core of the Programme.

v The Institute is collaborating with IGNOU in launching a ‘Certificate Course on Labour in Development’. The main objective of this Course is to create awareness of various labour related themes and educational empowerment of labourers in general and unorganised sector labourers in particular.

v The Institute has taken a number of steps to institutionalise the networking mechanisms with UN agencies, State Labour Institutes, Central Board for Workers’ Education, Labour Bureau and other institutions with similar objectives in the field of both training and or research.

v The Institute has been selected as the nodal Institute for the Technical Resource Group (TRG) on Prevention of HIV/AIDS at the Workplace. The TRG has been constituted to provide the needed guidance in the formulation of pragmatic future strategy for the Prevention of HIV/AIDS at the Workplace.

v The Institute brings out three regular publications namely Labour & Development, Awards Digest and Shram Jagat.

v The Institute has brought out a large number of publications in the area of unorganised labour, especially rural labour, child labour, women labour, migrant labour, etc. in order to provide appropriate information on the labour issues in these segments to all the concerned social partners. The Institute has also brought out innovative publications in the form of Desk Calendars, Year Planners, etc. to disseminate vital information on labour related issues especially on Supreme Court Pronouncements on Labour.

v The N.R. De Resource Centre on Labour Information, the Institute’s Library, is one of most reputed libraries in the area of labour studies. It receives about 300 national and international journals and has about 50,000 books and bound volume of journals.

v The Institute is working on a collaboration with the International Training Centre of ILO in Turin to develop the Institute as a Training Centre for South-East Asia.

v   Sector-24, NOIDA-201 301, Distt.-Gautam Budh Nagar (U.P.)

Mandate and Objectives

v The Central Board for Workers’ Education, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Labour, was set up in 1958. The Board is headed by a Chairman appointed by the Government of India and is tripartite in character.

v The Headquarter of the Board is at Nagpur. It has a network of 4 Zonal Directorates, 49 Regional Centres and 14 Sub-Regional Centres.

v The Board undertakes Workers’ Education Programmes with a view to promote effective participation of the working class in the process of socio-economic development.

v The Indian Institute of Workers’ Education at Mumbai, which conducts national level training programmes for Central Trade Union Organisations and officers of the Board is the apex training institute of the Board.

Activities

v The Board conducts various training programmes at national, regional and unit levels covering workers from organised, unorganised, rural and informal sectors. Supervisory and managerial cadres are also covered through joint educational programmes.

v The Board produces study and reference material in Indian languages and also brings out monthly newsletters in English and Hindi and publishes a quarterly journal containing articles on trade unionism, labour laws, industrial relations, methods of workers’ education etc.

v A review of the scheme of Rural Labour Camps has been taken up to make it more meaningful and effective.

v The Board is giving importance to areas of training relating to productivity, qualitative aspects and work culture.

v More need-based programmes to meet the requirements of both management and workers are conducted.

v The Board has conducted 4 Zonal Conferences on the topic "Workers’ Education in the Next Decade" and the recommendations of these conferences are under consideration of the Board.