 bill  no  viii  of  2008 the agricultural  and other unorganised workers (protection and welfare) bill, 2008 a billto provide for the protection from exploitation and anti-labourers practices of the agricultural and other unorganized workers and for the welfare measures to be implemented by the central and state governments for such workers by way of establishing a welfare authority alongwith a welfare fund to ensure minimum wages, pension and provident facilities, compensation in case of accidents, maternity and creche facilities and medical care to the women workers and for matters connected therewith and incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the fifty-ninth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the agricultural and other unorganized workers (protection and welfare) act, 2008(2) it extends to the whole of indiashort title, extent and commencement(3) it shall come into force with immediate effectdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "agricultural workers" means a person who works as a labourer on hire or in exchange whether in cash or kind or partly in cash and partly in kind working in any of the agricultural operations of other person or employer;(b) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state, the government of that state, and in other cases, the central government;(c) "authority" means the agricultural and other unorganized workers welfare authority established under section 3;(d) "employer" means any person who employs whether directly or through any other person or contractor, whether on behalf of himself or on behalf of any other person, one or more worker for any work or the work connected with the agricultural or horticulture operations;(e) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act; (f) "unorganized workers" means those workers who are unorganized and are not members of any labour or trade union and hired to do any work by any other person or employer;(g) "welfare fund" means the agricultural and other unorganized workers welfare fund established under this act3 (1) for the purposes of this act, the central government shall, as soon as may be but within six months from the commencement of this act, by notification in the official gazette, establish the agricultural and other unorganized workers welfare authorityother(2) the authority shall be a body corporate by the name aforesaid having perpetual succession and common seal, with power to acquire, hold and dispose of property, both movable and immovable, and to contract and shall by the said name sue and be sued(3) the headquarters of the authority shall be at thiruvananthapuram in the state of kerala and the authority may establish offices at other places in the country as it may deem necessary for carrying out the purposes of this act(4) the authority shall consist of the following members, namely:—(a) a chairperson to be appointed by the central government having the background and authority of labour related issues or of a farmer or of the judiciary;(b) a deputy chairperson to be appointed by the central government having such qualification as may be prescribed;(c) five members of parliament of whom three shall be from lok sabha and two from the rajya sabha to be nominated by the respective presiding officers of the houses;(d) for members to be appointed by the central government to represent the union ministries of agriculture, labour and employment, finance and rural development respectively;(e) four members to be appointed by the central government from amongst the agricultural and other unorganized workers covered under this act;(f) four members to be nominated by the governments of the states to be rotated amongst the states in alphabetical order(5) the term of office of the chairperson, deputy chairperson and members of the authority and the procedure to be followed in the discharge of the functions of the authority shall be such, as may be prescribed(6) the authority shall have a secretariat with such officers and members of staff and with such terms and conditions of services as may be prescribed from time to timefunctions of the authority4 (1) it shall be the duty of the authority to promote and undertake by such measures as it thinks fit or deem necessary and expedient, welfare measures for the agricultural and other unorganised workers(2) without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of sub-section (1) the measures referred to therein may provide for:—(a) maintaining district-wise register of all the agricultural and other unorganised workers with such particulars and in such manner, as may be prescribed;(b) maintaining land records from village level to district level in such manner as may be prescribed;(c) maintaining district-wise register of employers employing agricultural workersof unorganised workers, as the case may be, with such particulars and in such manner as may be prescribed;(d) making available of work round the year to the agricultural and other unorganised workers;(e) maintaining district-wise list of physicians and clinics and hospitals recognised for treatment, both indoor and outdoor facilities, of agricultural and other unorganised workers;(f) maternity and creche facilities for the female agricultural and other unorganised workers covered under this act;(g) payment of old age pension to the agricultural and other unorganised workers;(h) provident fund facility to the agricultural and other unorganised workers; (i) educational facilities for the children of agricultural and other unorganised workers;(j) insurance cover for the agricultural and other unorganised workers for such works and in such manner as may be prescribed;(k) such other provisions as the authority may deem necessary for the purposes of this actthe agricultural and other unorganised workers welfare funds5 (1) the central government shall, by notification in the official gazette, establish the agricultural and other unorganised workers welfare fund for the purposes of this act with initial corpus of rupees two thousand crore to be provided by the central government by due appropriation made by law by parliament in this behalf and thereafter the central government, state governments and the employers shall contribute to the welfare fund to such extent and in such manner as may be prescribed(2) the welfare fund may also receive moneys from corporate houses, financial institutions both domestic and international ones, individuals and bodies in the form of contributions or donations(3) all moneys received in the welfare fund shall be utilized for the welfare of the agricultural and other unorganised workers by the authority in such manner as may be prescribed from time to time6 notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force:—provisions relating to employers(a) no employers shall engage any agricultural worker or other unorganised worker, as the case may be, unless such worker has registered himself with the authority;(b) every employer shall pay minimum wages to the worker engaged by him or such wages in cash or kind as may be voluntarily agreed by such worker;(c) no employer shall deduct the wages of his worker in case he mets with an accident, or falls ill or has to take leave for maternity purposesfunds of the authority7 the central government shall provide, from time to time, after due appropriationmade by parliament by law in this behalf requisite funds for the expenditures of the secretariat and other purposes of this act8 it shall be the duty of the appropriate government to provide necessary assistanceto the authority in executing the provisions of this act within the territorial jurisdiction of such governmentsappropriate government to ensure compliance of the provisions annual report9 the authority shall submit an annual report in such form and in such manner asmay be prescribed, of its activities pertaining to welfare of agricultural and unorganised workers covered under this act to the president of india, who shall cause the report to be laid before both the houses of parliament along with action taken by the central government thereon after its receipt, as soon as may bepenalty10 notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in forcewhoever contravenes any of the provisions of this act shall be guilty of an offence and shall be punishable with simple imprisonment, which shall not be less than three months but may extend to one year and also with fine which may extend to two lakh rupee11 the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of anyother law for the time being in forceact to supplement other laws power to make rules12 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rulesfor carrying out the purposes of this act statement of objects and reasonsit has rightly been said that our country lives in villages because nearly 80 per cent of our country's population is living in the rural areas and in one way or the other depends on agriculture the agricultural workers who are unorganized too constitute majority of rural labour in the country similarly, the unorganized workers of both the urban and rural areas constitute the major chunk of the working classes in the country unfortunately, the agricultural workers and other unorganized workers remain exploited and hapless it has been observed that whereas the organized workers through their trade unions manage in most of the cases to get their genuine demands fulfilled from their employers but the unorganized workers can not even think of getting their reasonable and just demands like minimum wages, availability of work round the year, pension, pf, maternity benefits, creche, medical care, accident insurance, etc fulfilled by their employers they don't even get two square meals and remain hand to mouth and indebted throughout their lives their condition in the society is going from bad to worse every day and there is no legal protection for these poor workers the central government has introduced a bill for the protection of unorganized workers in parliament, but it does not cover the entire gamut of the unorganized workers and it will take its own time to become an act of parliament and its commencement since our democracy is wedded to welfare state it is high time that the unorganized workers too get their share in the development of the nation and state should implement various welfare measures for them by establishing an independent authority for the purpose and extend all possible legal protections to the vast section of the societyhence this billa vijayaraghavan financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for the establishment of the agricultural and other unorganised workers welfare authority clause 5 of the bill provides for the agricultural and other unorganised workers welfare fund with initial corpus of rupees two thousand crore to be provided by the central government clause 7 of the bill makes it obligatory for the central government to provide requisite funds from time to time the bill, if enacted will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a sum of rupees twenty thousand crore may involve as recurring expenditure from the consolidated fund of india per annuma sum of rupees two thousand crore may also involve as non-recurring expenditure from the consolidated fund of india memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 12 of the bill gives power to the central government to make rules for carrying out the purpose of the bill the rules will relate to matters of details onlythe delegation of legislative power is of normal character rajya   sabha ———— a billto  provide for the  protection from  exploitation and anti-labourers practices  of  theagricultural  and  other unorganized  workers  and  for  the welfare measures  tobe implemented by the central and state governments for such workersby way of establishing a welfare authority along with a welfarefund to ensure minimum wages, pension and providentfacilities, compensation in case of accidents,maternity and creche facilities and medicalcare to the women workers and  formatters connected therewithand incidental thereto ————(shri a vijayaraghavan,  mp)gmgipmrnd—4742rs(s-5)—29122008