Social security is the right of every citizen in need to get support from the state
Situation calls for recognizing all working age population as ‘workers/employees’ and extending social security to all citizens – Dr. Qaiser Bengal
Karachi: Noted economist Dr. Kaiser Bengali in a detailed presentation on the draft law of social security scheme said on Saturday that Social safety net is a capitalistic welfare concept while social security is a socialistic rights-based concept, under which it is the right of every citizen in need to get support from the state.
In his presentation at a consultative meeting organized by Home-based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF) here at a local hotel, he said there is a difference between social safety net and social security. He said that social safety net is a capitalistic welfare concept. “Market economies create distributions of income in such a way that some persons are benefited more than others and some persons are left out altogether,” he said adding that those left out are then provided a safety net to save them from crashing down the income ladder.
He said on the other hand social security is a socialistic rights-based concept, which is a right of every citizen in need to get support from the state. “It is duty of the state to support every citizen in need.”
He said that social security is by definition a universal concept. “The concept of social protection is enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and also recognized in UN instruments & ILO conventions as a basic human right.”
He said the Principles of Policy Article 38(c) of the Constitution of Pakistan calls upon the State to “provide for all persons employed in the service of Pakistan or otherwise, social security by compulsory social insurance or other means.”
Dr. Bengali said that labor welfare laws have existed from pre-independence days. Other laws like social security, old-age benefits, etc. have been added over the time. However, these provisions apply only to formal organized labor and only 2% of labor is organized. “There are some other across the board schemes like zakat, Bait-ul-Maal, and BISP. These schemes also cover less than one third of the population below the poverty line”, said Dr. Bengali.
He said that the definition of labor has changed over time because of structural changes including change in the technology-induced production regime, and change in the labor market regime. “Universal social protection is needed because large sections of formal labour have now been non-formalized and agricultural and informal sector workers have never been recognized as ‘labor’. Resultantly, labor welfare provisions apply to a very small part of the population, leaving bulk of the population unprotected”.
He said this situation calls for recognizing all working age population as ‘workers/employees’ and extending social security to all citizens – universally.
Dr. Bengali further said that three major components of Universal Social Protection can be Unemployment Support, Emergency Health Insurance, and Senior Citizen Pensions. He said the today’s discussion only covers the emergency health insurance, while other two components would be tackled in later stages.
He said emergency health insurance focuses on out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure on medical care for serious medical conditions – chronic illnesses or accident injuries. These expenses force the distressed people to sell their personal assets and push families below the poverty line. He said a support by State with respect to covering part of the expenditure can prevent families from having to resort to distress sale of assets to finance treatment. He said the proposed program is supposed to be implemented in insurance-mode.
He said that 10 chronic medical conditions are included in the proposed program. They include maternity, cardiovascular diseases, organ failure management, oncological diseases, neurosurgical diseases, stroke, third-degree burns, blindness, serious accident injury and major organ transplant. He said more chronic diseases could be added to this list. The families covered under this program would pay an annual premium for a maximum coverage amount. The expenses exceeding the maximum coverage would have to be paid by the concerned families.
Karmat Ali from PILER said that after the Covid, we need to go towards universal social security schemes including jobless allowances, as joblessness is a major post-Covid economy issue. He suggested that workable suggestions should be made and get implemented properly. He said social security should ideally be tax-based.
People Labor Bureau head Habibuddin Junaidi said that many departments made for the welfare of labors had lost utility and they need strict reforms and restructuring.
Earlier, HBWWF general secretary Zahra Khan opened the discussion by giving an overview of the proposed universal social security plan.
Other speakers included National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) general secretary Nasir Mansoor, vice chairman HRCP Qazi Khizr, Qamarul Hassan of IFU, Mir Zulfiqar of WERO and others.
It was decided that the proposed scheme would be initiated through a press conference and later the draft law would be presented to the government of Sindh. (PR)
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