New Delhi, Nov 11 (IANS) Union Minister of Labour & Employment Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday urged states to align their employment programmes with the Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rozgar Yojana (PMVBRY), which was recently launched with an outlay of nearly Rs 1 lakh crore to create 3.5 crore additional jobs in the country.

Addressing the National Conference of Labour & Employment and Industry Ministers and Secretaries of states and UTs here, the minister detailed the structure of the PMVBRY to facilitate formalisation and enhance social security, and called for active state collaboration to ensure its success. He stressed the importance of sustained collaboration among all stakeholders to ensure that the benefits of welfare schemes reach every worker across the country.

The Union Minister launched the Digital Labour Chowk mobile app and the Online BoCW Cess Collection Portal at the conference, which showcased a transformative vision for the welfare of India’s construction workers through three key digital and physical initiatives. The Labour Chowk Facilitation Centres (LCFCs ) model was presented at the conference, which will directly address the dignity and safety of workers by converting unsafe roadside gathering points into structured hubs offering shelter, drinking water, sanitation, and direct access to welfare services like registration and health camps.

Complementing this, the Digital Labour Chowk mobile application is a multilingual platform that connects workers with employers digitally for transparent and efficient job matching, reducing dependence on middlemen and unsafe waiting. To strengthen the financial backbone of welfare, the Online BOCW Cess Collection Portal introduces a unified digital system for automatic cess calculation, online payment, and real-time monitoring, ensuring plan approvals are linked to cess verification and accelerating the flow of funds to State Welfare Boards for worker benefits.

The two-day conference is a significant step in the spirit of cooperative federalism, aiming to accelerate the implementation of key labour policies and initiatives, decent employment generation, and social security initiatives.

In her opening remarks, Secretary (Labour & Employment), Vandana Gurnani, emphasised that the National Conference on Labour & Employment functions as a vital dialogue for building national partnerships and translating discussion into concrete action.

The conference also featured presentations on critical agendas. A presentation on the PMVBRY outlined its vision and structure, noting that the “Scheme is based on enrolment in EPFO to incentivise additional employment in the formal sector and sustain it”. Furthermore, the draft ‘Shram Shakti Niti’ (National Labour & Employment Policy) was discussed as a comprehensive vision document to build an inclusive, fair, and resilient ecosystem for workers, accelerating India’s journey towards a Viksit Bharat by 2047.

The draft Private Placement Agency (Regulation) Act, 2025, was also discussed, which is a significant step towards safeguarding Indian jobseekers. The proposed Central law aims to establish uniform national standards to regulate the currently fragmented placement ecosystem, bringing transparency and accountability to both domestic and overseas recruitment. Its core mechanism is the registration of all private placement agencies, creating a single national registry. It also establishes a three-tier regulatory authority at the Central, State, and local levels to enforce compliance and build a trusted, safe, and transparent placement ecosystem for every worker.

–IANS

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