cornell.edu (05.02.2024) The Future of India’s Social Safety Nets: Focus, Form, and Scope explains how an array of social welfare programs (comprising the safety net) have emerged as a leitmotif of social policy in independent India and explores the key challenges and scope for innovations in redesigning India’s social safety net system for the future. This open-access book provides a comprehensive analysis of India’s safety net by combining insights from a wealth of interdisciplinary scholarship on economic development, social protection, and the social policy process. It unpacks India’s social welfare programs in terms of their three essential aspects—focus (intended beneficiaries), form (transfer modalities), and scope (developmental objectives). Highlighting the developmental achievements and shortcomings of these independent schemes, the book proposes a framework to foster human resilience through social protection. Lessons from this book are equally relevant for other developing countries as they seek to build an efficient social safety net system.

ILO Working Paper 103(20.02.2024)  The objective of this paper is to provide a panoramic description and analysis of the diversity of the new forms of employment that have been emerging in China, with the focus on their background, the main types, the status quo of labour rights protection, and the government's responses to the challenges of labour regulations brought by NFE. Finally, on the basis of the above, the paper puts forward corresponding policy recommendations on how to improve workers' protection in new forms of Employment.

theconversation.com (21.01.2024) Young people – under the age of 15 – currently make up 29% of South Africa’s population. But this will soon change: the aged portion of the population is forecast to rise from 2030, bringing many challenges. Lauren Johnston, an economics and political economy expert, recently published a paper on the subject. We asked her to put the developments into perspective.

India Today (29.01.2024) The proposed fund, outlined in the Social Security Code of 2020, represents a significant move towards providing universal social security for a wide range of workers.

South China Morning Post (03.01.2024) Questions for people aged 60 and above were added to a survey on population changes and the labour force, including their ability to use a smartphone. A demographer urged China, one of the world’s fastest ageing countries, to ‘build a digitally inclusive society’, while firms were asked to produce age-friendly products

ILO Working paper (Dec 2023) This paper takes food-delivery platforms as a case study in China to examine the impact of digital labour platforms on employment and presents findings in employment structure, employment relations, working conditions, wages, protection of workers and social insurance in the food-delivery sector. The study reviewed the deteriorated employment situation in China during the COVID-19 pandemic, an increased proportion of workers joining the digital platform economies such as ride-hailing, delivery and domestic work, the disruptions in production, business operations (particularly in the accommodation and catering sectors), and labour mobility that contributed to the influx of workers from other service sectors to food-delivery sector. The key characteristics of platform employment in the food-delivery sector and challenges in China’s national employment policies and regulations of digital labour platforms reflected how the national employment policies in China has evolved in the specific context and offered an insight into the barriers and possible pathways toward the inclusive and sustainable development with full, productive, and freely chosen employment and decent work for all. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to promote decent employment in the platform economy beyond the traditional national employment policy frameworks.

voxdev.org (30.10.2023) Improving the payment infrastructure for India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme raised incomes — mostly through increases in non-programme earnings India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is among the largest and most influential social programmes in the world, guaranteeing 100 days of paid work to 8% of the world’s population. The programme was designed as a vital lifeline to India’s poor, tasked with smoothing income in agricultural off seasons and providing “employment of last resort” in the face of unforeseen economic hardship. At the same time, the NREGS has faced both practical challenges and more fundamental critiques. Administration has not been easy: few workers report being able to access the promised 100 days per year of employment on demand, and wages are frequently delayed (The Hindu 2023). And critics have long contended that if it were well-implemented such a scheme would be problematic, as it could crowd out private-sector employment. This critique gets to the heart of the programme’s design, as the work requirement is the core mechanism in place to ensure that benefits reach only those who really need them. Other than this, and the restriction to rural areas, eligibility is not restricted in any way.

ThinkTwenty (T20) India 2023 - Official Engagement Group of G20(2023)  Universal digital access to inclusive healthcare is a part of the G20’s vision to achieve Sustainable Development Goal-3 (good health and well-being), but the pathways to accomplish this are unspecified. India and other countries are in the process of extensively digitalising healthcare. This policy brief provides a roadmap to integrate the digital healthcare infrastructure for affordable, equitable, and universal access. The roadmap is presented using an ontology of universal digital access to inclusive healthcare. Policies related to universal digital access to inclusive healthcare must be based on the large number of pathways encapsulated in the ontology. The known effective pathways to universal digital access to inclusive healthcare must be reinforced, the known ineffective pathways must be redirected, and the unknown new pathways that must be discovered and explored.

pensionpolicyinternational.com (17.10.2023) India’s youthful population is often described as a key strength of the economy. India is among the youngest emerging market nations, and will remain so in the near future—a demographic dividend that makes it an attractive investment destination. According to the United Nations, a country is considered to be “ageing” if the share of the population over the age of 65 is more than 7%, “aged” when the share exceeds 14%, and “super-aged” when it crosses 20%. India will not be super-aged until 2050, but most Brics members will attain this dubious distinction earlier. Having grown used to the idea of a young, aspirational India, it is quite disconcerting to discover that a rising elderly population could pose significant social and economic challenges in the years ahead, as the recently released India Ageing Report 2023 by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) noted. The experience is not unique to India: the gradual ageing of a population over time is a natural demographic shift caused by falling fertility rates and higher longevity. Thus, it is not the ageing per se, but the pace of ageing that is a matter of concern. The population of India has been ageing at a faster rate since the early 2010s. It took 67 years from 1950 to 2017 for the 65-plus population to double from 3.1% to 6%, but the next doubling is projected to happen in just 25 years. By 2050, one in five Indians will be over 60 years of age, that is, effectively a senior citizen.

Institute of Development Studies (30.08.2023) To the international community, Brazil’s record on food security and social protection until relatively recently was exemplary, even enviable. The level of child stunting in Brazil fell from 25% in the mid-1980s to 15% in the mid-1990s and just 5% by the mid-2010s. This is a remarkable success story. Throughout the same 30-year period, the rate of child stunting in South Africa, a country that shares many characteristics with Brazil, remained constant at about 25%. 

When President Lula da Silva came into office in 2003, he almost immediately launched Fome Zero or Zero Hunger, a coordinated set of government interventions that aimed to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty in Brazil.

Nasdaq (13.08.2023) India plans to roll out welfare measures for "gig" workers employed through platforms like Amazon, Uber and India's Zomato as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government prepares for elections, government and trade union officials said. The plan, part of the Social Security Code enacted in 2020, could include accident, health insurance and retirement benefits, said a senior government official with direct knowledge of the plan.

orfonline.org (08.08.2023) By taking a gender-transformative and a rights-based entitlement approach, this Policy Brief stresses the importance of investing in the care economy within the context of COVID-19 recovery plans, the G20 agenda of striving for just and equitable growth, and India’s Vision 2047. Ensuring greater gender equality in the distribution of paid and unpaid work can be socially transformative and enhance gross domestic product. This Brief explores inequality within the care economy in India, specifically focusing on the unpaid care work, paid work, and paid care work circles, and their negative impacts. It further describes the challenges and importance of investing in care, with a particular focus on childcare provision. This Brief recommends positioning care as a fundamental pillar of a lifecycle social protection system and economic growth trajectories, with investment in the provision of care services as a public good provided by the state.

UNICEF India (May 2023) This document aims to present a selection of case studies from India and other countries showing how Shock-Responsive Social Protection approaches have been used in response to disasters and shocks, including climate change induced risks and the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Shock-Responsive Social Protection can contribute to strengthening disaster risk management along the four key priorities of the Sendai Framework

pensionpolicyinternational.com (14.03.2023) China is planning to raise its retirement age gradually and in phases to cope with the country’s rapidly aging population, the state-backed Global Times said on Tuesday, citing a senior expert from China’s Ministry of Human Resources. Jin Weigang, president of the Chinese Academy of Labor and Social Security Sciences, said China was eyeing a “progressive, flexible and differentiated path to raising the retirement age”, meaning that it would be delayed initially by a few months, which would be subsequently increased. “People nearing retirement age will only have to delay retirement for several months,” the Global Times said, citing Jin. Young people may have to work a few years longer but will have a long adaptation and transition period, he said.

The Japan Times (05.03.2023) China’s population decline, which the Chinese government officially confirmed in January, has led many observers to wonder if the country’s current demographic trends threaten its stability.

Pension Policy International (08.02.2023) China is planning to offer free fertility treatment to citizens under its national insurance scheme in a bid to reverse its plummeting birth rate. The National Healthcare Security Administration said on Friday it would extend its coverage to help shoulder the costs for families trying to conceive. It said the new coverage would include assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques and also cover labor analgesia to ease pain in childbirth. The most commonly performed ART procedure is in vitro fertilization (IVF). The administration described China’s falling population as one of the biggest obstacles to national development and stressed it had already added ovulation-inducing drugs to its coverage, to help “reduce the burden of infertility.” The expanded coverage is part of a wider attempt by Chinese authorities to persuade more people to get married and have more children. The country’s birthrate has been falling for years and last year the country recorded its first population decline in more than 60 years.

Indiablooms (04.02.2023) The 1st G-20 Employment Working Group concluded in Jodhpur today on a positive note with all G20 countries showing interest and commitment in constructively working towards the objective of the three priority areas of Addressing Global Skills Gaps, Gig & platform economy & social protection and Sustainable Financing of Social Security set by the Indian Presidency.

G20 member nations consist of 2/3rd of the global population with 80% of global economic output. In this context, deliberation on the enhancement of labour holds significant relevancy. The 1st Employment Working Group (EWG)Meeting under the Sherpa track of the G20 will be held from the 2nd to the 4th of February 2023 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The Indian presidency of G20 has a mandate of addressing priority labour, employment and social issues for strong, sustainable, balanced, and job-rich growth for all.

East Asia Forum (18.01.2023) China has translated its economic development into improved social welfare. China’s quest for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for all while lifting 800 million people out of poverty is an example. Its experience in healthcare development provides transferrable lessons for developing countries in making progress towards UHC.

theprint.in (31.11.2022) Social Protection Open Digital Ecosystems (SP-ODEs) can provide beneficiaries, government and service providers a unified, digital platform to better access welfare schemes.