PATNA: The curtain went up on the much-anticipated Labour 20 (L-20) Summit — part of the G20 deliberations — with the arrival of guests, here on Wednesday. Later, they visited Bihar Museum and attended a welcome dinner in the evening.
The L-20 chair, Hiranmay Pandya, who is the All India president of Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, said the summit will be inaugurated by lighting the lamp, with the Bihar governor officiating the ceremony at Gyan Bhawan auditorium on Thursday.
“A total of 173 delegates from 28 countries, will participate in the conference. India has extended invitations to eight countries — Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Nepal, and the United Arab Emirates (they are not part of the G20) — to participate in the G20 under its historic presidency this year,” Pandya said.
Deliberations will be held on two crucial topics, ‘Universal Social Security’ and ‘Women and Future of Work’ during different sessions of the labour engagement group of the G20 over the next two days. “The L-20’s inception meeting, held in Amritsar from March 19 to 21, saw extensive discussions culminating in a joint statement focusing on the two critical subjects — Women and Future of Work, and Social Security & International Portability of Social Security Fund,” Pandya said.
“Currently, only 32% of women worldwide are engaged in the workforce. Therefore, we need to promote women’s employment and strive for equal pay, for a better future,” he added.
Pandya further emphasized the need to address social security concerns for the vast majority of Indians. “Presently, 94% of Indians are working in the unorganized sector. Through the summit, we aim to provide social security to migrant workers both within and outside India, while also focusing on improving skill training among labourers,” he said.
As per Pandya, discussions on these issues were held with representatives of various sectors, including Business-20, Civil-20, Youth-20, and Women-20. The L-20 summit facilitated wide-ranging discussions across 11 cities in India, including Guwahati, Kolkata, Nagpur, and Thiruvananthapuram, with the participation of officials from the central government, state labour departments, trade union leaders, labour and development economists, and labour activists from national and international labour organizations. Local trade unions at district and industrial levels were also involved in the discussions, spanning 562 locations.
Following the summit, a meeting of labour and employment ministers is scheduled in Indore next month, where the G-20 labour and employment ministers will convene. The adopted declaration of the L-20 Summit will be presented to them, with the aim of transforming it into policy.
The International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, and Asian Development Bank have also received invitations to attend the summit.
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