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68 Women in the Economy (MWG-011)
Right to Health and Healthcare: In India, the Bore Committee Report 1946, which emphasized
on a combination of preventive and curative functions of healthcare, laid the foundation for healthcare
policies (CEHAT, 1996). Thereafter, the government adopted a policy approach to healthcare, by
implementing health plans and programs over the nine plan periods. Despite this, a highly inequitable
health system has denied quality health care to those who cannot afford it. In recent years, on one
hand, there has been a move towards privatization of healthcare, which denies the poor people of
access to healthcare. On the other, civil society groups have been adopting a human rights approach to
healthcare and demanding comprehensive and universal access to healthcare for all as an entitlement
and a positive right.
Using a human rights approach implies that the entitlement is universal, with no exclusion of any
group of people on grounds such as purchasing power, employment status, residence, religion, caste,
gender, disability, and any other basis of discrimination. At the same time, universality does not
discount the special needs of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups who may need special entitlements
through affirmative action to rectify historical or other inequities suffered by them. The framework of
right to health and healthcare in India requires the following elements: availability,
nondiscrimination, physical accessibility, economic accessibility, information accessibility, and
quality.

Q4. What were the measures taken for providing social protection to the workers.
Ans. Organized Sector: In the organized sector of workforce, apart from both the Central and State
Governments fixing minimum rates of wages under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 for various
employments under their respective jurisdiction, the Central Government fixes the National Floor
Level Minimum Wage (NFLMW) revising it from time to time. It presently stands at Rs.115/- per day
w.e.f. 1.4.2011. Though non-statutory, the State Governments are advised to ensure that in none of
their scheduled employments, the Minimum Wages are fixed at a level less than NFLMW (Pillai,
2011). In addition, social protection is provided through various laws such as:-
• The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1927: provides for compulsory payment of gratuity to
employees in various establishments.
• The Employees’ Compensation Act, 1923: Formerly known as the Workmen’s
Compensation Act, this law imposes an obligation upon the employers to pay compensation to
workers for accidents arising out of and in the course of employment.
• The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961: The Act promotes women’s welfare by providing for
paid maternity leave etc.
• The Plantation Labor Act, 1951: It deals with welfare facilities to be provided to
plantation workers and has been amended recently to provide safety and occupational health
care.
• The Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Act, 1948: It provides for health care and cash
benefit payments in the case of sickness, maternity and employment injury. The Act has been
amended to improve the quality of service under the scheme and also enable ESI
infrastructures to be used to provide health care to workers in the unorganized sector.
• The Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952: The Act
provides for instituting provident funds, pension fund and deposit link insurance fund for
employees working in factories and other establishments.
• Rajiv Gandhi Shamika Kalyan Yojana: A scheme to provide social safety net to insured
workers rendered unemployed through retrenchment, layoff, closure and partial disability. It
is being implemented by ESI Corporation by way of providing about half of the wages and
medical benefits for a period of one year.
Unorganized Sector
Informal Sector: It is also referred to as since a majority of workers in the unorganized sector are
women, social protection measures applicable to the unorganized sector of the labor force are more
relevant for women’s empowerment. Sudarshan (2009) writes that the social security problems of
workers in the unorganized/informal sector may be divided into two sets of problems:
• those that arise due to deprivation of poorer sections of population, such as inadequate
employment, low earnings, low health and educational status; and
• those that arise due to inadequate safety nets to meet contingencies such as ill health,
accident, death, and old age.
The fact that a majority of workers from socially backward communities find themselves in the
unorganized/informal sector imparts a certain social dimension to the characteristics of these
workers. It is for this reason that the National Commission on Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector
(NCEUS), in its May 2006 report, recommended that a measure of social security in that sense should
also be seen as a form of social upliftment.