UGC NET/JRF EXAM, JUNE-2025 Labour and Social Welfare

• The ILO Convention lists nine essential areas of social security protection that member nations should aim to provide. These nine branches include:

1. Medical care
2. Sickness benefit
3. Unemployment benefit
4. Old-age benefit
5. Employment injury benefit
6. Family benefit
7. Maternity benefit
8. Invalidity benefit
9. Survivors' benefit

These branches together represent the minimum international standards for comprehensive social security.

This theory suggests that labour welfare is provided out of love, compassion, and sympathy for fellow human beings.

• The philanthropic theory views welfare measures as acts of goodwill motivated by moral duty rather than legal compulsion.

• Employers provide welfare benefits because they feel a humane responsibility toward workers' wellbeing.

• This concept historically emerged during early industrialization when compassionate employers undertook worker welfare voluntarily.

• It emphasizes kindness, benevolence, and ethical responsibility of employers toward their workforce.

• Sir William Beveridge authored the influential Beveridge Report (1942) in the UK, which became the foundation of modern social security systems.

He identified five major societal evils:
- Want: poverty
- Disease: poor health
- Ignorance: lack of education
- Squalor: poor living conditions
- Idleness: unemployment

• Social security systems were designed as a structured assault on these five social challenges.

• The Act mandates employers to pay compensation for workplace accidents or diseases arising out of and during the course of employment. It offers monetary relief for death, permanent disability, partial disability, and medical conditions caused by employment.

• As a core social security legislation, it protects wage earners and their dependents.

• The other laws in the options relate to labour protection but not to social security benefits.

• The Act ensures timely and regular payment of wages to workers employed in certain establishments.

• It prevents unauthorized deductions and protects workers from exploitation.

• Employers must pay wages within fixed time limits (7 or 10 days depending on workforce size).

• The Act also mandates transparency in wage calculations and prohibits withholding of wages beyond lawful limits.

• Under the notification method, the government drafts proposed minimum wage rates and publishes them in the Official Gazette.

• A period is given for stakeholders-employers, employees, unions-to submit objections or suggestions.

• After reviewing feedback, the government finalizes and notifies the minimum wage rates.

• This method is one of the two legally accepted methods (the other being the committee method) under Section 5 of the Act.

• The Act was passed in 1936 but became operational from 28 March 1937, as officially notified.

• It governs timely wage payment, permissible deductions, and wage-related rights of employees.

• It originally applied to workers earning up to Rs. 200 per month but has been amended multiple times since.

• The Act played a foundational role in regulating wage administration in India during the pre-independence era.

• The Industrial Relations Code, 2020 consolidates three labour laws:
- Industrial Disputes Act, 1947
- Trade Union Act, 1926
- Industrial Employment (Standing Orders)
Act, 1946

• The Payment of Wages Act, 1936 is merged instead into the Code on Wages, 2019, not the Industrial Relations Code.

Therefore, option 4 is the correct choice.

India ratified the ILO Labour Inspection Convention (No. 81) in 1949, which is not among the given options (1945, 1946, 1947, 1948): The correct year of ratification is 1949, so none of the listed options is accurate.

• The Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) is the main ILO instrument on labour inspection in industry and commerce.

• Official ILO and Government of India records clearly show that India ratified Convention No. 81 on 7 April 1949.

• Since 1949 does not appear in the choices (1. 1945; 2. 1946; 3. 1947; 4. 1948), the objectively correct response cannot be matched with any option.

• For that reason, the answer must be treated as NONE, with the accurate year stated as 1949.

• Over 80-90% of India's workforce is in the informal sector, lacking formal contracts,
social security, and stable income.

The labour market does show:

- A rapidly rising gig economy, especially
after 2015.
- A low female work participation rate,
which is a structural characteristic.
- Clear supply-demand dynamics, influenced
by demographics and economic structure.

• Thus, "formal sector dominance" does not reflect the reality of India's labour market.