Unit 5 (ir).docx

Unit: 5 Concepts and scope of Social Security The word social security originated in USA in 1935. It means to help the people when they are unemployed and exposed to risk such as sickness, accidents, old age, maternity etc. Scope of Social security: It is in form of maternity benefits, health insurance, voluntary and compulsory insurance, provident fund schemes. These social security programs vary from country to country but have the following three common characteristics: 1. They provide some form of cash payment to the individual as compensation. 2. They are established by law. 3. Social security services are provided in 3 following ways: a) Social insurance: Here the contribution is made either by government or employer to help the employee in his or her old age.b) Social assistance: Here government helps in case of contingencies. No contribution is made by the workers.c) Public service: These programs are directly financed by government for every member of the community. These are scopes of social security TYPES OF SOCIAL SECURITY : The two important types of social security are as follows: 1. Social Assistance 2. Social Insurance.

1. Social Assistance: Social assistance refers to the assistance rendered by the Government to the needy persons without asking them to make contributions to be entitled to get such assistance. In other words, social assistance includes those benefits which are provided by the Government without any contribution from workers and employers. Workmen’s compensation, maternity benefits, old age pensions, etc. are the examples of social assistance. 2. Social Insurance: Social insurance refers to a scheme of maintaining fund from the contributions made by the employees and employer, with or without a subsidy from the Government. In other words, social insurance can be defined as a device to provide benefits as of right for persons of small earnings; in amounts which combine the contributive efforts of the insured with subsidies from the employer and the Government Examples of social insurance are provident fund and group insurance. Strictly speaking, these two types of social security measures may be said to be the two faces of the same coin. As a matter of fact, both of them are integral parts of a social security system. Here, it seems pertinent to make distinction between social insurance and commercial insurance. Following Table 21.1 bears out how social insurance differs from commercial insurance.

Social Security Measures in India: In the pre-industrial society, security against various contingencies was provided by the institutions like joint family, caste, guild, village community, religious

institutions, etc. Eventually, the emergence of industrial revolution changed both the nature of insecurity as well as the remedies provided for it. The United States of America is considered to be the birth place of modern social security measures. The social security measures in the USA were inaugurated with the enactment of the Social Security Act, 1935 under which a United Social Insurance System was established as the first major step taken in the field of social security. An old age pension system was also established by the Act of 1935. In 1938, a Social Security Board was set up to administer social security measures in the United States. Later on, the term ‘social security’ was adopted in various countries, of course, in different forms. The introduction of social security measures in India is expectedly a recent one. In fact, the making of climate for industrial security in India started from the 10 Session of the International Labour Conference held in 1927 in which two Conventions and Recommendations were adopted for social security in the country. These were discussed thread bare in the Indian Legislative Assembly in 1928. However, the Assembly resolved that the introduction of any comprehensive scheme for social security on the lines proposed by the ILO was impracticable under the conditions then prevailing in the country. Later the Preparatory Asian Regional Labour Conference, held in New Delhi in 1947 adopted a comprehensive resolution on social security implementation in various Asian Countries. Following this resolution, the Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 was enacted in India to inaugurate the social security measures in the country.

As stated earlier, India, as a ‘Welfare State’, is expected to take care of the citizens from the ‘cradle to the grave’. It is this realisation the constitution of India lays down that the State shall, within the limits of its resources and development, make effective provisions for securing public assistance in event of unemployment, old age, sickness, and disablement. This constitutional obligation has served as epoch making in India’s efforts in the field of social security provisions in the country. Since then, various social security schemes have been introduced in the country. Among the social assistance schemes, old-age assistance schemes are the most important ones. It was the Government of Uttar Pradesh who introduced old-age assistance scheme for the first time in 1957. The scheme was designed to pay a monthly benefit to needy individuals over the age of 70 years who had no one to support them. Later on, similar schemes were introduced in Andhra Pradesh in 1961, Tamil Nadu in 1962, Punjab and Haryana in 1963 and subsequently in many other states. Yes, the eligibility conditions to avail of these benefits and levels of benefits differ across the States. Subsequently, with increasing need for social security along with the increasing levels of national development, the Government made various legislative provisions to afford the needy people/workers protection against uncertainties in their lives.