The Union Ministry of Labor and Employment will issue a 12-digit Universal Account Number (UAN) for about 38 crore laborers in the unorganized sector.
With this step, not only will there be portability of welfare schemes, workers will also get the benefit of many beneficial schemes in times of crisis.
The need was felt in the Corona era: This step has been taken after almost one and a half years of large-scale reverse migration of workers. In fact, lakhs of laborers had returned home due to the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25 last year to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease. During this time the workers had to face many difficulties. Thereafter, emphasis was laid on creating a national database for the employees of the unorganized sector. In the second wave of Corona, questions were raised on the slow pace of the Ministry of Labor in creating the national database.
Let us tell you that in the month of July, the Supreme Court had termed the attitude of the Center in preparing the National Database for Unorganized Sector Workers (NDUW) as apathetic. The court had asked to start it soon so that this year all the migrant workers are registered and they can get the benefit of welfare schemes. Meanwhile, the apex court had also referred to its order dated August 21, 2018, directing the labor ministry to provide states and union territories a module for registration of workers in the unorganized sector.
Earlier on May 24, the apex court had termed the process of registration of unorganized workers as too slow. At the same time, the officials were also directed to provide dry ration to the migrant laborers trapped in the midst of the global pandemic of Kovid-19 across the country and to conduct community cooks.
