Belagavi: Karnataka Labour Minister Santosh S Lad on Tuesday assured the legislative assembly that the government will implement special social security schemes for unorganised sector workers including weavers and tailors in the state.

He also said that the government will consider collection of cess in various sectors, similar to the one already being done in the construction sector, to provide social security schemes.

“A cess of one per cent is being levied for every construction work in the state. The Karnataka Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board has implemented many social security schemes for the construction workers from the funds collected under this,” Lad said.

Noting that these schemes cannot be extended to workers to any other unorganised sector including weaving and tailoring, he said there is a social security board for unorganised workers in the state, which is registering and issuing identity cards free of cost to 11 categories of unorganised workers including porters, housekeepers, rag pickers, tailors, mechanics, carpenters, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, and barbers under the ‘Ambedkar Karmika Sahay Hasta Scheme’.

Free registration of 379 types of unorganised workers is also being done on the ‘e-Shram’ portal, he said.

Highlighting that for those who are doing tailoring in the state’s garment firms, a certain percentage of the employee’s salary and the same amount of the firm are being contributed to the provident fund, Lad said this provident fund is allowed to be withdrawn for purposes such as resignation of employee, retirement, illness, marriage, education, purchase of land and construction of house.

But there is no provident fund facility for those doing tailoring at home or in small shops, he said, adding, there are 7,28,044 tailoring workers in the unorganised sector across the state.

There is ‘Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana’, an accident insurance scheme meant to help workers in distress. He further said under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Shramayogi Mandhan Yojana’, workers in the unorganised sectors who have completed 60 years can get fixed pension of Rs 3,000 per month.

He then reiterated that the state government will implement special social security schemes for weavers and tailors in the future.

Like the cess model followed in the construction sector, it is being considered to collect one per cent cess in various sectors including garment, vehicle manufacturing and transport, the minister said, adding that the money collected from this cess will be used for schemes for the workers involved in the respective sectors.