India lags behind many nations when it comes to providing social security to workers in unorganised sectors due to paltry allocation of funds, according to Construction Workers Federation of India (CWFI) national president R. Singaravelu.
Mr. Singaravelu, who also is an International Secretariat member of the Trade Union International (Constructions), was of the view that both the Union Government and Tamil Nadu government needed to make mandatory budgetary allocation equivalent to three % of the GDP (gross domestic product) towards social security of unorganised workers.
“Kerala government is a good example in that front making budgetary allocation at such scale”, he told The Hindu after a brief press meet ahead of a construction workers conference here on Tuesday.
The CWFI president criticised the common social security code mooted by the Union Government by converging 15 labour laws, which, according to him, was conceptualised without consulting with trade unions.
Expressing concerns over the crisis in construction industry due to rising sand prices, Mr. Singaravelu called upon the State Government to take over entire sand mining, transportation and distribution operations without any private participation.
“The state government should also take initiatives to popularise the use of manufactured sand (M-sand) as in Kerala and should end the granite exploitations, all for rejuvenating the construction sector”, he said.
