SRINAGAR, Oct 26: Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Front (PDF) President and former minister Hakeem Muhammad Yaseen has demanded social security, job protection and SRO-43-related benefits for eligible daily wagers, ad hoc employees and casual labourers, describing their continued neglect as inhuman and unjust.
Yaseen said thousands of workers had been serving various government departments for years without regularisation, adequate job security or social protection, leaving their families facing prolonged uncertainty. He urged the government to formulate a comprehensive policy to protect their livelihoods and ensure a secure future.
“Daily wagers are also human beings. They have families to feed, children to educate and responsibilities to fulfil. Keeping them without job security and adequate social protection despite years of service is inhuman and unjust. The government must ensure that eligible workers receive SRO-43-related benefits under applicable rules,” he said.
Questioning the disparity in social security provisions, Yaseen pointed out that government employees had been covered under a health insurance scheme with coverage of ₹1 crore, while thousands of daily wagers continued to work without comparable financial protection.
He said daily wagers deserved dignity, healthcare coverage and security for their families, and called for appropriate measures to protect them against medical emergencies and other unforeseen circumstances.
Yaseen demanded that the government examine the applicability of SRO-43 provisions to eligible workers and introduce suitable social security measures for other categories of daily wagers. He stressed that regularisation, health insurance and employment security should be addressed through a clear, time-bound policy.
Criticising the formation of another committee to examine regularisation, he said repeated committees had failed to produce tangible results. He alleged that successive governments, including those led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Ghulam Nabi Azad and the National Conference, had failed to resolve the long-pending issue.
“The government already has the data of these workers. What is the point of forming committee after committee when thousands of families continue to suffer? The administration must move beyond paperwork and take decisive action,” he said.
Yaseen also criticised the previous PDP-BJP coalition government for failing to fulfil its commitments to daily wagers, despite references to the issue in budget documents between 2015 and 2018.
Urging the Omar Abdullah-led government to take concrete action, he called for a time-bound roadmap for regularisation, SRO-43-related benefits for eligible workers, health protection and social security. He said workers who had devoted years of service to government departments should not be left in uncertainty about their employment and future.