The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has observed a substantial increase in the registration of new establishments from the financial year 2019-20 to 2023-24, Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.
From a level of 1,17,063 in 2019-20, the number of new establishments registered with EPFO climbed to 2,94,256 in 2023-24.
This upward trend underscores the success of government efforts in fostering a more robust and inclusive economic environment, Shobha Karandlaje, Minister of State for Labour & Employment, said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
Key factors
This significant growth, driven by various recent government policies and initiatives, highlights the effective measures undertaken to promote business formalisation and employment generation, she added.
To streamline operations and enhance service delivery, she also highlighted that the Government has implemented numerous measures aimed at digitisation and the effective redressal of grievances. The digitization efforts encompass several user-friendly platforms and technologies, enabling easy access and efficient handling of grievances, she added.
The digital initiatives and grievance redressal mechanisms already undertaken include EPFO having devised various redressal mechanisms in both online and offline modes wherein the labourers/workers can lodge their problems/complaints with the concerned authority in EPFO.
In a written reply to another Lok Sabha question, Karandlaje said the total number of new subscribers under Employee Provident Fund (EPF) scheme across the country was 1,09,93,119 as on May 15, 2024 for financial year 2023-24.
ILO REPORT
Meanwhile, Labour Ministry sources indicated that India may take issue with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) report —India Employment Report 2024 released in March this year.
This report had highlighted that India’s youth account for almost 83 per cent of the unemployed workforce and the share of youngsters with secondary or higher education in the total unemployed youth has almost doubled from 35.2 per cent in 2000 to 65.7 per cent in 2022.
On the issue of implementation of Labour Codes, sources said some more discussions with various labour unions have to be done before implementation date can be decided and notified.