Now the MNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) workers will also be covered by the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008.

Acting on a decision of the government, the ministry of labour and employment has decided to consider, those who have worked under the MNREGA for 15 days, for the social security benefits for unorganised workers. Talking to Governance Now, Prabhat C Chaturvedi, secretary, the ministry of labour and employment said that the benefits of the scheme will also be extended to street vendors, workers at the construction sites, anganwadi workers, domestic workers and porters. Till now only below poverty line (BPL) workers were treated as beneficiaries. Under the scheme, the beneficiaries are provided health insurance cover. They are being issued smart cards under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) for the same. Almost 1.85 crore smart cards have been issued till date and the ministry is aiming at extending the scheme cover to six crore people during a period of five years from 2009-2010, added Chaturvedi.

The Act came into force with effect from May 16, 2009.

Moving further in this direction, the national social security fund with the initial corpus of Rs 1000 crore has been created this year. Meanwhile, Chaturvedi said that Andra Pradesh and Rajasthan are the two states where the RSBY is not under implementation till now as they have their own state-funded scheme.