Sri Bandaru Dattatraya Minister of L&E addresses the meeting of BRICS Heads of Delegations to ILO 2015 conference in Geneva

“Respected First Deputy Minister Mr. S.Velmyaykin,

Mr. Dias, Minister of Brazil,

Mr. Oliphant, Minister of South Africa,

Mr. Kong, Vice Minister of China,

Dear friends and colleagues,

2. I am privileged to be here in the meeting of heads of delegations of BRICS Countries. At the outset, let me thank the Russian Deputy Minister for convening this. I also thank the Russian side for the Discussion Paper on Quality Jobs and Inclusive Employment Policies. We believe that the proposed topics for Ministerial discussion have significant relevance in the contemporary global economic scenario. We look forward to the discussion on creating quality and inclusive employment.

3. Friends,

BRICS represent around 42% of world population and contribute 21.6% of World GDP and are considered as the new building blocks of the global economy. The forum of BRICS is emerging as a multiregional platform to strengthen common dialogue and cooperation in several policy areas. At the Fortaleza Summit, our leaders have agreed to explore new areas of cooperation to include Labour and Employment, Social Security, and Social Inclusion Public Policie.  We must keep the momentum going and consolidate our common positioning on economic growth, job creation, decent work and social protection in one voice at this international forum.

4. For India, enhancing the employability of the youth through skill development and improving the participation of women in the work force are priority areas. My government believes in the importance of matching skills with the requirements of the labour market. Towards this objective, Honourable Prime Minister NarendraModijihas launched the Skill India Programme. The main goal of this programme is  to create opportunities, space and scope for the development of the talents of the Indian youth and to develop more of those sectors which have already been put under skill development and also to identify new sectors for skill development. The Make In India Programme, launched recently is envisioned to create more decent jobs and improve the skills of the Indian workforce, while promoting investment and economic growth.

5. Friends,

Social protection is one of the core areas in which the new government in India has focused. The Universal Account Number provided in the organized sector, allows portability of Employees’ Provident Fund Accounts.  Portable universal account numbers have been allocated to 44.2 million active users of the EPFO. In the unorganized sector, the government has issued Social Security Cards. The Jan Dhan programme of financial inclusion is another major initiative of government of India whereby 140 million accounts of the labour force have been created. This would enable transfer of benefits directly to the accounts of the workforce.

6. India is committed to creation of quality and inclusive employment. We believe that BRICS countries can go a long way through mutual cooperation in achieving this shared objective both within the Group as well as in the multilateral organizations such as ILO. We may work towards a formal endorsement of our future regular interactions in the next BRICS Summit at Ufa, Russia.

Thank you.”

AT/Uma (ILO)