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The Rajiv Gandhi Shramik Kalyan Yojana a new scheme introduced by the Employee’s State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) comes into force from tomorrow, i.e. April 1, 2005, following the formal Gazette notification in this regard.
The scheme will benefit workers in the organized sector who lose their jobs involuntarily due to retrenchments or closure of factories and establishments. A provision of Rs. 300 crores had been made for implementation of the scheme in the current year.
The scheme entitles a retrenched or disabled worker who has been in insurable employment for a period of at least five years to a monthly cash allowance equal to 50 per cent of the wages for a period not exceeding six months.
It is estimated that about a lakh of workers face involuntary unemployment in the organised sector annually due to globalisation of trade and commerce and liberalisation of economic activity. The causative factors for such retrenchments and closures of factories include skill upgradation, automation of procedures, outsourcing and cost cutting in production in a highly competitive market.
MLD/LK (RGSKY)(L-173) 31.3
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