On a coordinated endeavour by civil society organisations in the country to reflect the concerns of the unorganised workers in the light of the proposed unorganised sector workers’ social security bills by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, National Advisory Council of the UPA and National Centre for Labour, a three-day national convention will be organised in Nagpur from 26 to 28 October 2006. The unorganised sector, being highly diverse and encompassing large sections of the workforce, has always been outside the purview of any effective social security coverage since the very beginning of legislative interventions in the country. Understanding these intrinsic complexities of the sector, the convention attempts to voice the concerns of these under-represented lots.

The convention aims at critically looking at the existing and proposed Acts/Bills on the unorganised sector; to assert state responsibilities on social security in the unorganised sector and to facilitate interactions of trade unions, people’s organisations and civil society organisations for meaningful and effective interventions. Also, it aims to strengthen the role of civil society organisations as facilitators and campaigners, by equipping them on issues relating to social security for unorganised workers.

The three-day convention will discuss and deliberate issues of employment regulation, discrimination in social security benefits, gender discrimination in the unorganised sector, women and social security, social exclusion forms of discriminations and the changing pattern of labour relations subsequent to the structural adjustment of the economy. It will explore the possibilities of adequate representation of the concerns emerging thereafter. This will be further followed up at appropriate levels.

The participants of the convention will be from civil society organisations, organisations of people’s movement and trade unions working on variegated issues and groups of the unorganised sector in the country. Upholding the social security rights of the workers in the unorganised sector, the convention is expected to bring public attention, especially in the special context of the discussion of the social security bills in the forthcoming session of Parliament.

The convention in Nagpur is jointly organised by a consortium of eleven civil society organisations including Centre for Education and Communication (CEC), New Delhi.