Social security in India

The primary objective of these measures is to foster sound industrial relations, cultivate a high-quality work environment, ensure legislative compliance, and mitigate risks such as accidents and health concerns.

The Code on Social Security, 2020 is part of the Indian labour code that deals with employees' social security and have provisions on retirement pension and provident fund, healthcare insurance and medical benefits, sick pay and leaves, unemployment benefits and paid parental leaves.

These are retirement, healthcare, disability, childcare, gratuity and provident fund and insurance programs mostly governed by The Code on Social Security, 2020, most of which are mandatory for all Indian and foreign employees' working in India.

At the official age of retirement, the employee can withdraw 60% of the amount as a lump sum while 40% needs to be compulsorily used to buy annuity that will be used to pay a monthly pension.

In the General Provident Fund Scheme, the employee needs to contribute at least 6% of his gross salary and there is a guaranteed return of 8%.

The fund is managed by the Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) according to rules and regulations stipulated in the ESI Act 1948.

This public health insurance is fully tax-payer funded and the entire premium is borne by the centre and the states in a 60:40 share.

The program is estimated to cost the government ₹99,000 crore (US$11 billion) by 2026, highlighting one of the few social security scheme that is not undergoing a budget cut.

[20] PMJAY and the E-card provide a coverage of ₹5 lakh ($6860) per family, per year, thus helping the economically vulnerable obtain easy access to healthcare services for free.

It is a voluntary basic supplementary pension scheme, mostly intended for people surviving on mini-jobs, short-terms contracts or daily-wage earners.

[21] According to The Code on Social Security, 2020, all women employees are entitled to 26 weeks of fully paid maternity leaves.

[22] Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana is available to people (Indian Resident or NRI) between 18 and 70 years of age with bank accounts.

Under the provisions of the bill, beneficiaries of the Public Distribution System (or, PDS) are entitled to 5 kilograms (11 lb) per person per month of cereals at the following prices: In addition to grains and cereals, 2 kg of protein-rich high quality lentils and pulses are also provided for free to per person per month.

In 2022, the general government (centre and states combined) spent about 6.3% of its budget on this programme with a total allocation of ₹530,000 crore (US$61 billion).

[35] The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme, and alternate innovative education centres, Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and National Child Labour Project schools run by the ministry of labour.

This is India's flagship assistance for housing designed specifically to reduce rural and urban homelessness and poverty.

[40] The Central Government, which covers 60% of the cost, allocated a budget of ₹48,000 crore (US$5.5 billion) for both rural and urban regions.

[43] Pradhan Mantri Matri Vandana Yojana is a maternity benefit programme run by the government of India for low-income households.

It is a conditional cash transfer scheme for pregnant and lactating women of 19 years of age or above for the first live birth.

[46] The total financial cost of this benefit (both the centre and states together) was ₹2,475.89 crore (US$290 million) in 2020, highlighting steady cuts in budgetary allocation over the years.

[47] It is a government programme in India which provides food, preschool education, primary healthcare, cash transfers to families, immunization, health check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers.

Tenth five-year plan also linked ICDS to Anganwadi centres established mainly in rural areas and staffed with frontline workers.

[49] In addition to fighting malnutrition and ill health, the programme is also intended to combat gender inequality by providing girls the same resources as boys.

[50] The widespread network of ICDS has an important role in combating rural malnutrition especially for children of weaker and marginalised groups.

It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

Together with the central and state governments, the net allocation was ₹201,666 crore (US$23 billion) in 2021, a massive increase from the budgeted estimate in order to counter the economic loss caused by the COVID-19 lockdown.

[56] The National Social Assistance Programme is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Government of India that provides solidarity financial benefits to elderly people who were unable to work and has no other pension rights, widows/widowers who's left without the family breadwinner and persons with disabilities in the form of social pensions.

The purpose of this initiative is to uplift those girls who are from poor families and thus can't pursue higher studies due to tough economic conditions.

[60] The genesis of the scheme could be traced to the concept of rural restaurants promoted by Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute.

Amma translates to mother in Tamil, but is also a reference to Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who introduced this restaurant chain as part of government schemes aimed at aiding economically disadvantaged sections of society.