Bihar Guv inaugurates G20 labour engagement group meeting

Nine areas of social security were identified by ILO which entailed medical care, sickness, unemployment, old age, accidents during employment, family care, maternity leave and survivorship, he said.Virjesh Upadhyay, Chairman of Workers Education Board, said that social security should not be considered the responsibility of only the government and industry, but should be achieved with the participation of society, he added.Security measures were tightened and traffic was restricted around Gyan Bhawan, the main venue of the event.

Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar inaugurated a labour engagement group meeting of G20 here on Thursday.

Altogether 173 delegates from 28 countries are participating in it.

Apart from the G20 countries, India, as part of its presidency, has invited Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates to join the meeting.

Welcoming the delegates, Arlekar said, "I am proud to see you (the delegates) in Bihar. The dignitaries present here represent around 75 per cent of the total global population, which is a moment of pride for Bihar". Speaking of the historical significance of the state, he said it dates thousands of years and is a land of knowledge where students of different nations came to gain knowledge at Nalanda University. Vaishali area in the state is considered the ''mother of democracy''.

"Today the need is to give importance to human values. If we have human values, not only the labour sector, but the entire social, economic and political life will be strengthened," he said. Labour-20 (L-20) chairman Hiranmay Pandya said, ''I want to assure you that L20 will not only represent the voice of G 20 nations, but it will surely also represent the voice of those nations whose representatives are not present''. Addressing the technical session, Aarti Ahuja, the secretary in the ministry of labour and employment discussed various measures taken by the government for social security in the country. Universal Social Security and its related draft were discussed during the technical session.

Development economist Santosh Mehrotra discussed the financing of universal social security in the context of G-20 and presented the various technical aspects of the subject. He also presented a comparative analysis of the current status of Convention 102 of the International Labor Organization (ILO). "Nine areas of social security were identified by ILO which entailed medical care, sickness, unemployment, old age, accidents during employment, family care, maternity leave and survivorship," he said.

Virjesh Upadhyay, Chairman of Workers' Education Board, said that social security should not be considered the responsibility of only the government and industry, but should be achieved with the participation of society, he added.

Security measures were tightened and traffic was restricted around Gyan Bhawan, the main venue of the event.