The Ministry of Labour and Employment is working on war footing to facilitate cashless transfer of wages to workers with a view to promote digital transactions. The Ministry has taken several steps to support measures taken towards this objective. Shri Bandaru Dattatreya, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour & Employment said a campaign was launched on 26th November, 2016 for opening bank accounts of workers especially in unorganized sector like construction, beedi, scheme workers like Anganwadi, Asha and cine workers who still do not have bank accounts. The objective of the campaign is to ensure that all workers come into banking fold and their wages are paid directly into their account. This will not only prevent exploitation of workers and payment of wages without cut but will also inculcate the habit of using cashless transactions.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment in collaboration with Department of Banking and Finance Ministry is organizing camps for opening bank accounts through its field offices like ESIC, EPFO and Labour offices in coordination with district administration. The Labour Departments of Government of India and State Governments are fully involved in this campaign.
Total 15,134 camps have been held in the country till yesterday. Of these, EPFO held 2324, ESIC held 2878 and CLC held 9284 Camps.
As a result of this campaign by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, 3,87,037 bank accounts have been opened all over India. However as per information received from Ministry of Finance, over nine lakh persons have enrolled till yesterday to open accounts. It may be noted that already 25.68 crore Jandhan Accounts are existing and all the left over workers are being covered.
For further facilitation and strengthening the distribution network for cashless transactions, Shri Bandaru Dattatreya has also urged the Ministry of Finance for providing facility of mobile ATM-cum-cash dispensing vans all over the country at strategic locations where there is large presence of workers, particularly, in unorganized sector. The Banking Correspondent should approach the Labour clusters to facilitate money exchange for workers, the Minister has further asked.
The Minister also informed that Officers of the Ministry of Labour & Employment are being deputed across the country for coordinating/supervising the bank opening activities at the camps.
The Minister has also written to the Chief Ministers of States about the campaign of opening of bank accounts. He also urged the Trade Unions to contribute in this campaign and called upon one and all to extend their cooperation.
