India demands more representation at International Labour Organisation

MELBOURNE: India has sought an increase in representation at the senior levels of ILO and also asked for technical assistance to develop a database to capture the nature and composition of informal sector in India.

Labour Minister Narendra Singh Tomar met International Labour Organisation (ILO) Director-General Guy Ryder on the sidelines of Labour and Employment Ministerial Conference of G20 nations here yesterday, and urged him to allocate more resources both in terms of funds and experts to India.

"Tomar sought ILO's intervention in providing technical assistance to develop an appropriate methodology to construct a statistical database to capture the nature and composition of informal sector in India.

"He also urged Ryder to increase Indian representation at senior level in ILO," a Labour ministry press statement said.

Tomar was attending the conference where labour ministers of the World's major 20 economies discussed labour-related issues during the two-day conference.

"Driving home the point that Asia-pacific region covers 60 per cent of the global workforce but receives only 10 per cent of resources, Tomar requested ILO Chief to allocate commensurate resources, both in terms of funds and ILO experts," the statement said.

Re-affirming India's commitment to ILO's "Decent Work Agenda", Tomar told Ryder about the multi-pronged measures undertaken by his government, chief among which were pan-India multi-skilling programme, tapping country's vast demographic dividend by augmenting youth employability.

Ryder appreciated the initiatives taken by the new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and assured of continued technical support from ILO to India's efforts.

Tomar told Ryder that his government is focused on speeding up transition from informal to formal employment for which it is easing compliance laws for businesses and reducing paperwork.