Social Security Systems In India: Special Focus On National Pension Scheme


  • Social security may be defined as any programme of social protection established by legislation, or any other mandatory arrangement, that provides individuals with a degree of income security when faced with the contingencies of old age, survivorship, incapacity, disability, unemployment or rearing children. It may also offer access to curative or preventive medical care.
  • Economists Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze distinguish two aspects of social security — “protection” and “promotion.” While the former denotes protection against a fall in living standards and living conditions through ill health, accidents, the latter focuses on enhanced living conditions, helping everyone overcome persistent capabilities deprivation.
  • India’s social security system is composed of several schemes and programs spread throughout a variety of laws and regulations. Keep in mind, however, that the government-controlled social security system in India applies to only a small portion of the population.
  • Furthermore, the social security system in India includes not just an insurance payment of premiums into government funds (like in China), but also lump sum employer obligations.

Need for Social security in India

  • Indian society is traditionally a Joint Family system. So social security was primarily provided by the community and the family. The state was obligated by the constitution to become a “welfare state”. However, due to limited capacity of the state just after the turmoil of the Independence a large chunk of the social security obligation were place under the DPSP, which are non-justifiable. Also, since formal employment is a meagre 7% in India, as per economic survey 2013-14, thus an overwhelming majority of the citizens were mostly dependent more on the social structure rather than on the state for their social security.
  • The wave of globalisation demanded greater attention and protection to informal workers as the process of globalisation has eroded employment relations, which have encouraged formal sector employers to hire workers at low wages with no social-security benefits or to subcontract the production of goods and services, which helped them maintain cost efficiency.
Location: Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Geneva Convention 1949

Image
Why is it in news? Pakistan violated the Geneva Convention What is Geneva Conventions? The Geneva Conventions are a series of treaties on the treatment of civilians, prisoners of war (POWs) and soldiers. It is also known as the Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflicts. It was adopted in 1949. It includes four conventions, with three protocols added on since 1949. Their purpose is to provide minimum protections, standards of humane treatment, and fundamental guarantees of respect to individuals who become victims of armed conflicts. These Conventions and their Additional Protocols set out how soldiers and civilians should be treated during armed conflict. What are the four conventions? Convention I: This convention protects wounded soldiers and ensures humane treatment without discrimination based on race, colour, sex, religion or faith, birth or wealth, etc. The convention prohibits torture, assaults upon personal dignity, and execution without judgment. It also grants the ri
Read more

Collegium controversy

Image
Recent issue The controversial collegium system of judicial appointments is under public scrutiny once again. The collegium’s unusual action of revisiting decisions made at an earlier meeting, and recommending the elevation to the apex court of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, instead of two judges whose names had been considered earlier is the issues recently surfaced. The allegation is not merely one concerning the seniority or the lack of it of the two appointees; rather, it is the much graver charge of arbitrarily revoking a decision made on December 12 last year. The appointment of Sanjiv Khanna to the Supreme Court on saw controversy as former Delhi High Court judge Kailash Gambhir wrote to the President objecting to the move since it “superseded almost 32 judges”. There is no communication from the Supreme Court on why it scrapped its decision of December 12 and went with the choices it did. The lack of clarity shines a spotlight on the opaque collegi
Read more

ICJ on decolonisation of Mauritius

Image
Context: The International Court of Justice (ICJ)  dismissed the UK’s right to govern the Chagos Islands  in the Indian Ocean and called on its government to withdraw from the archipelago. What is the issue? The Chagos Archipelago is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about 500 km south of the Maldives. It had been part of Mauritius since the 18th century when the French first settled the islands. All of the islands of French colonial territory in the region were ceded to the British in 1810. Before Mauritian independence, in 1965, the UK split the archipelago from the territory of Mauritius to form the British Indian Ocean Territory and permitted the US to use it for defence purposes for 50 years (until December 2016) followed by a 20-year optional extension and US Military Base was setup in Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands. 2,000 inhabitants were resettled in Mauritius and the Seychelles. The UN resolutions banned the
Read more