• India
  • Oct 23

India gets chairmanship of ILO Governing Body after a gap of 35 years

After a gap of 35 years, India assumed the chairmanship of governing body of International Labour Organisation (ILO), with labour secretary Apurva Chandra being elected to the post for the period October 2020-June 2021. 

The Governing Body is the apex executive body of the ILO, which decides policies, programmes, agenda, budget, and elects the Director-General. The chairperson of the Governing Body of ILO is a position of international repute.

Who is Apurva Chandra?

Apurva Chandra belongs to the 1988 batch of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Maharashtra cadre. He has worked for over four years between 2013 and 2017 as principal secretary (industries) in the Maharashtra government.

Chandra joined as Director General (acquisition) in the ministry of defence from December 1, 2017, with the mandate of strengthening the Indian Armed Forces by expediting the acquisition process. He chaired the committee to draft the new Defence Acquisition Procedure. 

The Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020 has come into effect from October 1, 2020, on the day he joined the ministry of labour and employment as secretary.

At Geneva, Chandra will have the opportunity to interact with the senior officials and social partners of the Member States. It will also provide a platform to apprise participants of the initiative taken by the government in removing the rigidities of the labour market, besides making intention clear about the universalisation of social security to all workers in the organised or unorganised sector. 

International Labour Organisation

• The International Labour Organisation (ILO) is the United Nations agency for the world of work. It sets international labour standards, promotes rights at work and encourages decent employment opportunities, the enhancement of social protection and the strengthening of dialogue on work-related issues. 

• The ILO was founded in 1919 as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, to pursue a vision based on the premise that universal, lasting peace can be established only if it is based on social justice. 

• The ILO became the first specialised agency of the United Nations in 1946.

• It is the only tripartite UN agency with government, employer, and worker representatives. This tripartite structure makes the ILO a unique forum in which the governments and the social partners of the economy of its Member States can freely and openly debate and elaborate labour standards and policies.

Member States

The ILO comprises 187 Member States. In addition to the States which were Members of the ILO on November 1, 1945, any original member of the United Nations and any State admitted to membership of the United Nations by a decision of the General Assembly may become a Member of the ILO by communicating to the Director-General its formal acceptance of the obligations of the Constitution of the organisation.

The General Conference of the ILO may also admit members to the organisation by a vote of two-thirds of the delegates attending the session, including two-thirds of the government delegates present and voting.

The ILO’s Secretariat has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and a global network of technical experts and field offices in more than 40 countries.

The International Labour Conference (ILC) meets once a year to adopt new international labour standards and to approve the ILO’s work plan and budget.

The Governing Body is the executive council of the ILO and meets three times a year in Geneva.

Objectives of ILO:

• Creating jobs: Promoting economies that generate opportunities for investment, entrepreneurship, skills development, job creation and sustainable livelihoods. 

• Guaranteeing rights at work: Obtaining recognition and respect for the rights of workers. All workers, and in particular disadvantaged or poor workers, need representation, participation and laws that protect their rights.

• Extending social protection: Ensuring that women and men enjoy working conditions that are safe, allow adequate free time and rest, take into account family and social values, provide for adequate compensation in case of lost or reduced income and permit access to adequate health care.

• Promoting social dialogue: Strong and independent workers’ and employers’ organisations are central to increasing productivity, avoiding disputes at work and building cohesive societies.

International labour standards

International labour standards are legal instruments drawn up by the ILO's constituents (governments, employers and workers) and setting out basic principles and rights at work. They are either Conventions (or Protocols), which are legally binding international treaties that may be ratified by Member States, or Recommendations, which serve as non-binding guidelines. 

In many cases, a Convention lays down the basic principles to be implemented by ratifying countries, while a related Recommendation supplements the Convention by providing more detailed guidelines on how it could be applied. Recommendations can also be autonomous, that is not linked to a Convention.

The ILO Governing Body has identified eight ‘fundamental’ Conventions, covering subjects that are considered to be fundamental principles and rights at work.

The eight fundamental Conventions are:

1. Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948  

2. Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 

3. Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (and its 2014 Protocol)

4. Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 

5. Minimum Age Convention, 1973

6. Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999

7. Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951

8. Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958.

India has not ratified two these fundamental Conventions: 

• Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention

• Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention.

India and ILO

India, a founding member of the ILO, has been a permanent member of the ILO Governing Body since 1922. The first ILO Office in India started in 1928. 

The decades of productive partnership between the ILO and its constituents has mutual trust and respect as underlying principles and is grounded in building sustained institutional capacities and strengthening capacities of partners. It has a two-directional focus for socio-economic development: overall strategies and ground-level approaches.

The ILO's overarching goal is Decent Work, which means promoting opportunities for all women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and dignity.

The Decent Work concept is translated into Decent Work Country Programmes (DWCPs), prepared and adopted by the tripartite constituents and ILO, at country levels. 

The Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) for India (2018-22), formulated and adopted by the constituents at the national level through a process of tripartite consultation, is the framework for ILO’s assistance to constituents in the country. The ILO’s country programme for 2018-22 is closely aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Framework. This is the ILO’s third DWCP in India since 2007. 

ILO's current portfolio in India also centers around child labour, preventing family indebtedness employment, skills, integrated approaches for local socio-economic development and livelihoods promotion, green jobs, value-addition into national programmes, micro and small enterprises, social security, HIV/AIDS, migration, industrial relations, dealing with the effects of globalization, productivity and competitiveness, etc.

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