Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008

Also called: UWSSA 2008 · Topic: Employment, Unemployment and Informalisation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008 (UWSSA 2008) was India's first central law aimed only at social security for unorganised workers. Unorganised workers are people such as street vendors, farm labourers and home-based workers who have no written contract, provident fund or pension. The Act came into force on 14 May 2009. On 18 August 2009 it set up the first National Social Security Board, which recommended welfare schemes, advised the Centre and monitored those schemes. The Board could only advise; it did not run any scheme itself. The Act is now subsumed into the Code on Social Security, 2020, which means its provisions have been absorbed into the Code.

Example

Under the Act, a construction worker in Ahmedabad could register as an unorganised worker on the basis of self-declaration, meaning their own claim about their job and income, and get an identity card to use schemes. When PRS analysed the 2007 Bill, it found there was no process to check that claim and no time limit for issuing the cards. The same self-declaration weakness continues on e-Shram today.

Don't confuse with

• Code on Social Security, 2020: this Code replaced the 2008 Act. It is also the first Indian law to define gig and platform workers, which the 2008 Act did not cover.
• NCEUS (Arjun Sengupta): this was a commission that pushed for universal social security. It made recommendations but was not a law.

Read more

• Employment, Unemployment and Informalisation