Government Working On Pension Cover For 38 Crore Uncovered Workforce In India: Report

The central government is considering launching a mission to roll out credible retirement cover to about 38 crore uncovered workforce in the country.

“Inter-ministerial consultations are taking place on how to arrive at pension/retirement benefit cover saturation,” an official in the know of developments was quoted in a report by the Financial Express.

He added, “The idea is everyone should be in one of the schemes.”

The availability of funds will be considered while assessing the budgetary impact of the mission that might include incentivising workers, employers and the administrative setups.

The boost in savings that will result from a larger pension cover for workers could also encourage further investments, according to the concerned officials.

Initial discussions suggest that the government is looking towards a mission mode quite similar to the ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)’ for this prospective universal pension scheme.

As of now, about 12 crore workers are enrolled in some sort of the social security scheme such as the Employment Provident Fund (EPF), National Pension Scheme (NPS), PM Shram Yogi Maandhan among others.