Ensure quality health, education and housing facility to workers: Haryana Governor Shri Bandaru Dattatraya

Chandigarh, December 7, 2021: Haryana Governor Shri Bandaru Dattatraya on Tuesday stressed the need for ensuring quality health, education and housing facilities to workers in the state in general and those in the unorganized sector in particular. “Our workers – in the organized and unorganized sector – deserve the best of care so that the ease of life for them and their families improves significantly,” said Shri Dattatraya while having the review meeting of the Labour Department and ESI Health Department, Haryana, at Raj Bhavan today.
Shri Dattatraya said that optimum utilization of funds received from the governments and the cess collected should be ensured by providing better and quality health, education and housing facilities to the workers. “Our workers – whether in organized or organized sectors – are the assets to build a strong and sustainable economy. They must get quality health, education and housing facilities,” said Shri Dattatraya.
The Governor also said that children and women should get better attention in terms of their empowerment through skill development programmes. Sharing his experience as a Union Labour Minister, Shri Dattatraya said that there is no dearth of schemes and funds but the challenge lies in translating them into tangible benefits for target groups on the ground.
“Better facilities for the children of workers will help us improve their life in a sustainable manner. They should be armed with entrepreneurial skills by making provisions for relevant training in areas of their concentrations. Think for newer ideas, innovations and interventions. Talk to workers so that planning and execution become easier,” he said.
The Governor said that apart from upgrading and further firming up existing health facilities being run by ESI Health Care Department, there is a need for having a 10-bedded dedicated hospital for the workers in every Tehsil of the state. The idea is to serve them in the best possible manner,” he added.
Shri Dattatraya said that serving workers in an efficient manner will become much easier if there is proper coordination among all stakeholders and at all levels for which regular discussion, deliberations and field visits are needed. “Our officers should spend some time among workers to encounter difficulties being faced by them,” he said, promising all support to their efforts.
Shri Dattatraya said that more and more labourers should be brought under the ambit of Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Yojana and Atal Pension Yojana. Simultaneously, efforts should be made to implement labour reforms with transparency and commitment, which will be a game changer for the welfare of labourers, he said.
Earlier, Shri Raja Shekhar Vundru, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Labour Department, Government of Haryana, made a detailed presentation, highlighting a slew of enabling and welfare measures being undertaken to improve the lot of workers in organized and unorganized sectors. Every possible effort is being made to help them in more ways than one, said Shri Vundru, adding that the Labour Department will further accelerate the pace of implementation of existing welfare schemes.
Shri Vundru informed that Haryana State Social Security Board has been constituted to ensure all round development of workers on priority. Haryana is the first state in the country to have put in place such a Board, he added.
Shri TL Satyaprakash, IAS, Labour Commissioner, said that the suggestion of Hon’ble Governor to focus on providing quality health, education and housing facilities to workers will be given priority along with the execution of existing schemes and programmes. Shri Atul Dwivedi, IAS, Secretary to Haryana Governor, stressed the need to work with a wholesome approach so that no one is left out for which better coordination among all stakeholders and promptness in plugging loopholes are of paramount importance.
The review meeting was attended by among others Shri BA Bhanushankar, IT, Advisor to Hon’ble Governor, Dr Anil Kumar, Director, ESI Healthcare Department, Shri Arvind Kumar, Additional Director, Labour Department, Smt Anuradha Lamba, Additional Labour Commissioner, Shri Paramjit Singh, Deputy Labour Commissioner, Shri Anurag Gehlot, Joint Secretary, Building and Other Construction Worker Welfare Board, Shri Vikas Hooda, Deputy Labour Commissioner, Haryana Labour Welfare Board, Dr Saravjit Kaur, Deputy Director, ESI Healthcare Department, Shri Bhakhvinder Singh, OSD to Hon’ble Haryana Governor, and Shri Amarjeet Singh, Joint Secretary, Haryana Raj Bhavan.