India is in a position to ratify ILO convention 138 and 182: Bandaru Dattatreya

Labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Tuesday said that India is in a position to ratify the ILO conventions 138 and 182 concerning child labour and that his government has started the process in this direction.

"Two historic reforms have been introduced. India has put a complete ban on employment below 14 years of age and on employment in hazardous occupations below 18 years of age," he said speaking at the inaugural session of BRICS ministerial meeting on labour.

According to Dattatreya, India is committed to inclusive growth so that the benefits reach the marginalized sections and they become integral to the growth process.

"With commitment to job security, wage security and social security for all, while employment generation is the prime goal, efforts are on at the same time towards enhancing the welfare of workers through various initiatives," an official statement quoting Dattatreya said.

Having unique advantage of significant set of common characteristics of labour market economic development as well as common challenges, BRICS forum endeavour to work for building responsible, inclusive and collective solutions to our common challenges in our respective national contexts and national sovereignty.

BRICS is home to about 45 per cent of the world’s economically active population. Antonio Jose Barreto De Araujo Junior, vice minister, ministry of labour from Brazil, Lubov Eltsova, deputy minister, ministry of labour and social protection from Russia, QiuXiaoping, vice minister, ministry of human resources & social security from China, Mildred Nelisiwe Oliphant, ministry of labour from South Affrica and Guy Ryder, director general of ILO lead their respective delegations.

India has assumed the presidency of BRICS in February, 2016 and will host the 8th BRICS Summit 2016 to be held on October 15-16, 2016 at Goa under the theme "Building Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions".