Here is your short paragraph on social security in India!
Several laws have been enacted since independence to provide for social security to the workers.
For instance, Employees’ State Insurance Act was passed in 1948 and Employees’ Provident Fund Act in 1952. Some measures of social security existed even before these acts were passed.
But these measures were in the nature of social assistance and not social insurance. Moreover, they covered only a minor part of the distress of the industrial workers. Again payment was the sole responsibility of the employer and worker was not liable, in any way, to pay any contribution.
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At present both types of social security schemes are in vogue in our country. Among the social assistance schemes old-age assistance schemes are the most important. The Government of Utter Pradesh introduced old-age assistance scheme in 1957.
This scheme was designed to pay a monthly benefit to needy individuals over the age of 70 years who had no one to support them. Similar schemes were started in Andhra Pradesh in 1961, Tamil Nadu in 1962, Punjab and Haryana in 1963 and subsequently in many other States. However, different States have different eligibility conditions and provide different levels of benefits.
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Under the Centrally-sponsored National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) three types of benefits are given to the people who are below the poverty line. These are old age pension, maternity benefit and support on the death of the bread winner.
Under the Old Age Pension scheme each person of the age of 65 or above gets Rs. 75 p.m. Under the Maternity Benefit Scheme a woman gets Rs. 300 per pregnancy up to the first two live births. Under the third scheme a bereaved family is given Rs. 5000 in case of natural death of its bread winner and Rs. 10,000 in case of death by accident.
The social insurance method, which has gained much wider acceptance than the social assistance method, consists of the following enactments.
1. The Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923,
2. The Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948,
3. The Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952,
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4. The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961
5. The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, and
6. The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.