Social security administration in India- study of provident funds and pension scheme

Social Security is becoming a distinct part of social policy of India and the time has come to give a serious thought to ever increasing Social Security needs of the population. There are diversified views on extension of Social Security coverage. Some say it should be limited to only working population and to their families and while others say that the entire population should be covered under Social Security programmes. Social Security schemes further have been branched out as protective Social Security Schemes which address the contingent poverty or employment related poverty, and the promotional Social Security schemes which address immediate economic need of population or subsistence poverty and majority of them are social assistance schemes. Nevertheless, the available contingency related old age income and survivor benefit schemes for the organized working class have been under great criticism on their administration, coverage gap, benefit delivery and inefficient fund management. In the recent times the affordability and sustainability of publicly managed old age income security provisioning has bee under scrutiny. Add to this the current ‘development approach’ of liberalization, globalization and privatization (LPG) has added a large number of people to the informal sector from the formal sector and the formal sector where social security programs have been in operational, started shrinking. Ironically, the one and only organization in India, the Employees Provident Funds Organisation, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Labour, Government of India, administering ‘Old age income, disability and survivor benefit programs, has been under grate criticism in terms of its efficiency, reach and addressing increasing social security needs.