Stakeholders Stress the Need to Increase All Citizens' Access to Social Security

Kathmandu. Stakeholders stressed the need to increase awareness to connect all citizens to social security programs. Stakeholders participating in the interaction program organized by Inspire Nepal, Social Security Civil Society Network, and HomeNet Nepal on the topic 'Social Security for All: A Fundamental Human Right' on the occasion of National Social Security Week, 2082, said so.

Speaking on the occasion, stakeholders emphasized the necessity of citizen awareness to increase affiliation with the Social Security Fund. Speaking at the program, Chiranjivi Neupane, Assistant Director of the Social Security Fund, said that although workers have been included in contribution-based social security, the complexity of the working procedures has made it difficult to include workers employed in the informal sector. 

He said that the SSF is working to implement social security for all and is working to include the informal sector as well. He also stated that problems were caused by certain working procedures.

Similarly, Ramsundar Thapa, Officer at the Department of Labour and Occupational Safety, informed that the department conducts periodic monitoring, from assessing workers to checking whether they are affiliated with the Social Security Fund or not. 

Giving a presentation on the occasion, Constituent Assembly Member Pemba Lama presented a working paper on the status of workers' participation in social security. In it, he stated that the majority of female workers are deprived of the security fund and stressed that the government should introduce a special action plan to make it gender-friendly.

Similarly, Rajeev Gautam, Employment Coordinator of Budhanilkantha Municipality, said that they are working by allocating a budget to connect informal sector workers with social security.

Dolma Tamang, President of the Social Security Civil Society Network, said that the social security scheme, which started in 2012, has still not reached all workers. She opined that emphasis should be placed on a campaign to bring public awareness to the citizen level. 

Similarly, Rajendra Chaulagain of the Network said that how the state and the private sector cooperate in implementing the social security program for everyone will also be important.

On the occasion, Taranidhi Pant, representative of the informal worker sector, Manju Rai, representative of home-based workers, Shanta Thapaliya, Bidur Subedi, President of the Human Rights Alliance, among others, said that due to problems in policy formulation, the social security program has not become for everyone even after a long time since its implementation. Their statement was that the social security program should be for everyone.

On the occasion, prizes and certificates were distributed to Arif Khan (First), Ranjana Karki (Second), and Angel Karki (Third) in the creative writing competition organized in the context of the National Social Security Week.

Similarly, certificates were distributed to the daily top performers in the week-long quiz competition: Aryan Thapa Kshetri (First day), Ranjana Karki (Second day), Mohammad Ayan Miya (Third day), Shivasharan Khadka (Fourth day), Mukesh Adhikari (Fifth day), Soni Upreti (Sixth day), and Diwas Khadka (Seventh day).