GURUGRAM: Less than a month after the Centre announced Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhaan scheme (PM-SYM) for workers in the unorganised sector, the labour department of Gurugram has started to enroll them under the scheme.The scheme entails an assured monthly pension of Rs 3,000. Additional labour commissioner Sanjiv Singhla said the department has started to survey the number of workers in the unorganised sector, including street vendors, rag-pickers, agricultural workers, beedi workers, cobblers, handloom workers, domestic workers and rag pickers in the 18-40 age bracket.“The process of enrolment has started, and a few names are on the list already,” said Singhla.The scheme, announced by finance minister Piyush Goyal in the interim budget for 2019-20, is targeted at unorganised sector workers with a monthly income of up to Rs 15,000. It is a voluntary and contribution-based pension system, which targets 42 crore unorganised workers in the country. Labour department officials said lakhs of workers in Gurugram will benefit from it.“There are around 40,000 auto rickshawalas in the city apart from a huge number of cobblers, domestic workers and others. The number of beneficiaries will easily cross the 1 lakh mark,” claimed a senior labour department official.A state-level meeting was held for the implementation of the scheme and 150 occupations have been decided to be covered under it. A labour department official said workers joining the scheme at the age of 18 years will have to pay Rs 55 per month till their retirement, to avail a pension of Rs 3000 per month. The contributions would rise at higher age. The worker joining the scheme at the age of 40 years would contribute Rs 200 per month to avail the scheme. All the monthly contributions by the workers will come with matching contributions from the government.Meanwhile, senior officials in the department said that Haryana government already offers a pension scheme that provides Rs 2000 to unorganised sector workers, without the need for any contributions from them. “It would be difficult for us to convince the workers to go for PM-SYM, an official said. “We will soon launch an awareness campaign to educate the workers and get them on board for the scheme,” said Singhla.

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