Social Security for Unorganised Sector Workers Essay Example for Free

Social Security for Unorganised Sector Workers Essay The National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector was set up by the UPA Government under the Chairmanship of Arjun Sengupta in September 2004. The Commission prepared two draft bills: (1) Unorganised Sector Workers Social Security Bill, 2005, and (2) Unorganised Sector Workers (conditions of work and livelihood promotion) Bill, 2005. According to the draft bill, it will cover all workers in the unorganised sector with a monthly income of Rs. 5,000 and below. This category includes self-employed workers (including marginal and small farmers), wage workers including agricultural labourers, and home-based workers. It also includes informal workers under the organised sector. It is estimated that around 30 crore workers are eligible under this scheme. The Bill indicates that there will be a national minimum social security for all eligible workers covering four things: (a) health insurance; (b) maternity benefits; (c) life insurance; and (d) old age pension. Every unorganised sector worker is eligible for registration. The registered worker will get a unique social security card. The existing welfare programmes will continue as before. A National Social Security Fund will be created. The scheme will be financed from the contributions at Re. 1 a day by workers, employers (wherever identified), and the Government (that is, Rs. 3 per worker a day or Rs. 1,095 a year). The Government contribution will be divided between Central Government and State Government in the ratio of 3:1 respectively (75 paise per worker by the Centre and 25 paise per worker by the State Governments). Similar to the Employment Guarantee Scheme, the National Commission estimated the costs of the minimum social security scheme. If all the 30 crore workers are covered, the contributions would work out to Rs. 32,850 crore. The share of the Central Government will be Rs. 17,548 crore and that of the State Governments Rs. 5,010 crore. This adds up to a total of Rs. 22,558 crore to be spent by Central and State Governments, equal to 0. 8 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product in 2004-05. If we include administrative and other expenses, the government contribution may not exceed one per cent of GDP. Similar to the national EGS, full coverage is expected to be reached in five years. If six crore workers are covered in the first year the cost will be Rs. 4,512 crore and Rs. 22,558 crore from the fifth year. The Government can contribute to the fund in the form of grants or through tax or cess. The second Bill, which deals with conditions of work and livelihood promotion, addresses the issues relating to providing a basic minimum standard on hours of work, payment of minimum wages, bonded labour, and child labour. The Bill also recognises some minimum entitlements of the workers such as the right to organise, non-discrimination in the payment of wages and conditions of work, safety at workplace, and absence of sexual harassment. The costs of providing health insurance, maternity benefits, life insurance, and old age pension for the 30 crore workers are not clear from the Bill. The Government contribution in the first year (Rs. 4,512 crore) is not large but in the fifth year it is closer to one per cent of GDP. As the draft says, tax or cess is one option for raising resources for the Government. The insistence on State Governments contributions may create problems for the scheme as their finances are in bad shape. the Bill seems to be following the targeting approach for identifying beneficiaries. For example, the Bill says that it would cover all workers in the unorganised sector with a monthly income of Rs. 5,000 and below. This may again lead to targeting errors and corruption. the implementation machinery still looks bureaucratic although decentralisation is mentioned. It is better to involve panchayati raj institutions more. Fourthly, legislation alone is not enough. For example, health insurance for all the workers will not help if there are no doctors and health infrastructure, particularly in rural areas. Hence, spending has to increase at the grassroots level for better delivery systems. Fifthly, the working of the present welfare boards for workers must be examined. Keralas experience shows that there are problems of sustainability, high costs, meagre benefits, etc. Lessons should be learnt from these experiences. Sixthly, the second Bill on conditions of workers is equally important. Some regulatory institutions are needed without ending up with inspector raj. Minimum wages have to be fixed keeping in view the increasing needs of the poor. The laws should be effectively implemented. Some estimates show that even if the number of days of employment are increased, the existing wages may not bring many workers above the poverty line. This is the main reason why we have so many working poor in the country. The poor are working but at low wages. The main issue is how to improve the wage rates for the unorganised workers. DOMESTIC WORKERS Live-in workers are often treated as 24-hour slaves. Many employers do not let them even step out of the house. Part-time domestic workers are in a slightly better position. They are not on duty 24 hours a day, have access to their own families and friends, and can quit work when employers become abusive. However, there is a growing demand for live-in workers who can double up as `ayahs or nurse-cum-companions for the elderly. To meet this demand, young girls and boys are often trafficked from the poorer districts of many States. From Bokaro district (Jharkhand) alone, three lakh girls have migrated or were trafficked, 40 per cent of whom were below 14. Their average annual earnings would be Rs. 200 crores, of which they take home only half; the other half goes to the agencies. A separate law is needed to control trafficking, besides regulating working conditions. Domestic workers are especially disadvantaged since they are not covered by laws such as the Industrial Disputes Act, the Equal Remuneration Act, or even the Minimum Wages Act. The Central government has been shying away from enacting any specific legislation for this group. A Domestic Workers (conditions of service) Bill was drafted as early as 1959 but was never enacted. The House Workers (conditions of service) Bill, 1989, was not enacted either. In 2003, the Human Rights Law Network filed a petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of the NDWM, pointing out that legislation to protect domestic workers had been stalled time and again. According to lawyer Vipin Mathew Benjamin, the government had told the court that domestic workers would be covered by the forthcoming Unorganised Sector Workers Bill, 2004. The Supreme Court passed an order saying that all suggestions and demands could be put before a tripartite committee to deliberate on the draft of the Bill. Consultations with all stakeholders were to be held at the Central and State levels. We dont have a problem if this bill is comprehensive, he said. According to Bhatnagar, who is also coordinating the National Campaign Committee for Unorganised Sector Workers, there are no fewer than five versions of the draft Bill. The one put up by the Union Labour Ministry has come in for heavy criticism. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer, former Judge of the Supreme Court, called it a `a half-baked law and said that rushing it through Parliament would be `a gross betrayal. Meanwhile, domestic workers are organising themselves. As a result, the Domestic Workers (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2003, has been tabled in the Maharashtra Assembly, while Karnataka has been persuaded to extend the Minimum Wages Act to domestic work. It is high time the government amended the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, which is applicable only to 64 professions (13 occupations and 51 processes) that are deemed hazardous.

Trapped by the Views of Others Essay -- Comparative, Howells, Gilman,

In the stories of Editha, The Story of An Hour and The Yellow Wallpaper the realism technique of writing is demonstrated by the omission of fixed, idealistic endings of stories that aren’t realistic. The authors incorporate their characters’ lack of freedom and tragic endings in these stories, which in turn leads readers to experience a realistic conclusion as opposed to an idealistic one. Editha written by William Dean Howells, is a short story of a young woman’s naà ¯ve views about war and heroic love. Editha foolishly wants her fiancà ©e George, to prove his love for her and believes that going to war would be â€Å"the completion of her ideal of him† (p 372). She views love as an act that must be established by a heroic deed as the author states, â€Å"if he could do something worthy to have won her—be a hero, her hero—it would be even better than if he had done it before asking her; it would be grander† (p 372). George’s view on war is much different than Editha’s; he knows that war causes much pain and suffering as his own father lost his arm in the Civil War. When Editha cleverly persuades George to enlist, he loses his freedom as he states, â€Å"I know you always have the highest idea. When I differ from you, I ought to doubt myself† (p 373). At this point George has given up his liberty to follow his own beliefs, he further states, â€Å"There is a sort of fascination in it. I suppose that at the bottom of his heart every man would like at times to have his courage tested; to see how he would act† (p 373). As the story unfolds, George goes off to war only to meet his untimely death during his first skirmish. The ending of this tale is one of realism as opposed to an idealistic one. The ideal ending would have been one in which Georg... ...peration as she finds comfort in the yellow wallpaper. The story ends with the narrator completely going crazy. Her husband unlocks the bedroom door only to find her creeping around in a room full of ripped yellow wallpaper and he faints. The ending of this tale is also one of realism as opposed to an idealistic one. The ideal ending would have been if John would have been wise enough to seek help for his wife as opposed to ignoring her condition due to the fact that he could not acknowledge his inability to help her. In conclusion these stories exhibit three characters’ lack freedom compelled by human nature that one has the right to impose their ideals on others. The tragic endings of these stories demonstrate realistic endings of that time frame. One can only assume that the endings of these stories would be more idealistic in these contemporary times.

ENG 225 quiz 4 ashford university Essay

1. Question : Which female auteur is best known for staking out traditionally male territory in her films Sophia Coppola CORRECT Kathryn Bigelow Nora Ephron 2. Question : Which quality most distinguishes the musical as a genre in its own right? Student Answer: CORRECT Its songs are part of the action Its songs accompany the action It contains only songs and no score Its dialogue is primarily sung 3. Question : According to John Truby, why are genre films generally favored by American studios? They are less expensive to make CORRECT They provide more reliable profits They are risky investments, but can yield big profits 4. Question : Which of the following is true of horror films in recent decades? They are becoming less realistic They are becoming more expensive CORRECT They are becoming more violent 5. Question : Which critic is best known for opposing the auteur theory? Roger Ebert Francois Truffaut CORRECT Pauline Kael Instructor Explanation: The answer can be found in Chapter 7 of Introduction to Film. 6. Question : Which of the following gangster films was forced to add a title at the end to satisfy public watchdog groups? Student Answer: CORRECT The Public Enemy Scarface Gomorrah 7. Question : Which of the following is the best way to describe a director’s style? Student Answer: CORRECT His or her favorite mise en scà ¨ne, cinematography, editing, and sound techniques The habitual way he or she deals with the actors on the set Typical way he or she deals with producers and other studio executives His or her preferred subject matter and genre in which to work 8. Question : Which stylistic movement in film was best known for using well-worn actual locations and ordinary-looking, nonglamorous actors? German Expressionism CORRECT Italian Neorealism French New Wave 9. Question : Why do many theorists doubt that genres exist at all? Because studios invented the idea as a cynical marketing tool Because they are the product of audience expectations, not films themselves CORRECT Because the definitions are fluid at best, meaningless at worst 10. Question : In which of the following genres is the audience most likely to be asked to sympathize with the forces of evil? CORRECT Gangster Horror Romantic comedy

Set CheckBox.Checked Without the OnClick Event

The TCheckBox Delphi control displays a checkbox that can be on (checked) or off (unchecked). The Checked property specifies whether the checkbox is checked or not. When the user clicks the checkbox to change its Checked state, the OnClick event for the checkbox is fired. Changing the Checkbox's Checked Property Since there is no OnCheckedChanged event, you will probably handle the program logic dependent on the checked state of the checkbox in its OnClick event. However, if you programmatically change the Checked property, the OnClick event will be fired -- even though no user interaction took place. There are (at least) two ways to programmatically change the checked property of the checkbox while disabling the OnClick event. Remove OnClick Handler, Change Checked, Put Back the Original OnClick handler In Delphi for Win32, an event can have only one event handler (procedure) attached to it (even though there is a way to mimic multicast events in Delphi for Win32). The OnClick events signature of a TCheckBox control is type TNotifyEvent procedure(Sender: TObject) of object; If you assign NIL to the OnClick event before you change the state of the checkbox, then revert to the original OnClick event handling procedure - the OnClick event will not be fired. procedure SetCheckedState(const checkBox : TCheckBox; const check : boolean) ;var   Ã‚  onClickHandler : TNotifyEvent; begin   Ã‚  with checkBox do   Ã‚  begin   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  onClickHandler : OnClick;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  OnClick : nil;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Checked : check;  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  OnClick : onClickHandler;  Ã‚  end;end; Usage of this procedure is simple:   //toggle Checked statebegin   Ã‚  SetCheckedState(CheckBox1, NOT CheckBox1.Checked) ; end; The SetCheckedState above toggles the Checked property of the CheckBox1 check box. Protected Hack: ClicksDisabled:= true Another way to stop the OnClick from executing, when you programmatically change the Checked property of a checkbox, is to take advantage of the hidden (protected) ClicksDisabled property. By looking at the TCheckBoxs SetState procedure which gets executed whenever the Checked property changes, the OnClick is fired if ClicksDisabled is not true. Since ClicksDisabled is protected you cannot access it from your code. Luckily, the protected hack technique enables you to access those hidden/protected properties of a Delphi control. The accessing protected members of a component provides more info on the subject. What you need to do is to declare a simple dummy class extending the TCheckBox in the same unit where you will use the ClicksDisabled property. Once you get your hands on the ClicksDisabled, simply set it to true, change the Checked property, then set ClicksDisabled back to false (default value): type TCheckBoxEx class(TCheckBox) ; ... with TCheckBoxEx(CheckBox1) dobegin   Ã‚  ClicksDisabled : true;   Ã‚  Checked : NOT Checked;   Ã‚  ClicksDisabled : false; end; Note: the above code toggles the Checked property of the checkbox named CheckBox1 using the protected ClicksDisabled property. Building Applications with Delphi Beginners Guide to Delphi Database Programming​​​​Integrating Basic Charts into Delphi ApplicationsHow to Move and Resize Controls at Run Time​Multithreaded Delphi Database Queries