Social Security is widely seen as a fundamental building block of a just and equitable society. With more than 85% of the labour force in the unorganized sector, it is no surprise that the provision of comprehensive social security for the unorganized sector has been a stated objective of the Indian government. In the spirit of extending social security to the unorganized sector and keeping in mind long term demographic trends which indicate a rapidly ageing population and a non-declining unorganized sector workforce, the Government of India passed the Unorganized Workers‘ Social Security Act in 2008. This report attempts to analyse and characterize the nature of the challenges in the design and implementation of these schemes, and use this understanding as the basis to draw out lessons on design and implementation of a Comprehensive Social Security Scheme for India.
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