Demand made for welfare of agricultural workers

New Delhi, May 4 (UNI) Members in the Lok Sabha today impressed upon the government to initiate a slew of measures for the welfare of agricultural workers, including providing them with insurance and pension benefits.

Initiating discussion on private members' Agricultural Workers Welfare Bill, 2005, Kiren Rijiju (BJP) said the government should accept the bill in totality and ensure insurance cover for the unorganised agricultural workers. He also suggested that the number of working days for the labourers should be increased from the present 100 days to 365 days in a year.

Sailendra Kumar (SP) said under the present system rural job cards are issued by the Panchayats and thus was restricted to a small population. A system should be evolved in which more and more women could be provided these job cards as they remain the worst affected, he added.

S Sudhakar Reddy (CPI) urged the government to accept the Bill as it was envisaged under the Common Minimum Programme of the UPA. He said according to various studies there were about 24 crore landless agricultural workers in the country, living in miserable condition.

No minimum wage was fixed for them and where the labourers were being given a minimum wage, it has not been revised revised for over a decade. He said the Bill should include providing insurance cover to these unorganised workers as also medical cover and maternity benefits for the women labourers and pension for all who have attained the age of 65 years.

Mr Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) said he was opposed to any Central legislation on this subject but would like that the government should adopt some of the developing countries model like that of Brazil, China, Indonesia and Tunisia for providing social sector benefits to the people.

K S Rao (Cong) supporting the bill said in fact the government should construct houses for them and provide education subsidy for their children.

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