Reference: Labour Economics by Jiuitesh Kumar Singh (Deep

& Deep Publication Pvt Ltd)

• SOCIAL SECURITY: MEANING AND OBJECTIVES:

The issue of social security has been on top of the priority agenda
of the international Labour organization.
The I.L.O defines Social Security as “security that
society furnishes through appropriate organizations against certain
risks to which its members are perennially exposed. These risks are
essentially unforeseen contingencies against which the individuals
of small means and meager resources cannot effectively provide.
These risks are sickness, maternity, accident, unemployment, old
age and death. It is the characteristic of these contingencies that
they imperil the ability of the working man to support himself and
his dependents in health and decency”.
According to this definition, all government policies may
have a large number of security services but all of these cannot be
regarded as social security schemes. Only such schemes which
provide the citizen with benefits designed to prevent or cure
diseases, to support when unable to earn, and to restore him to
gainful activity may rightly be regarded as schemes of social
security.
A comprehensive service of social security designed to
combat the Five Giants in the path of social progress----Want,
Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and idleness (or involuntary
unemployment)----consist of Social insurance (for basic needs),
Social assistance (for special requirements) of involuntary loss of
all or a large part of income from work or to grant additional
income to persons with dependents.
Of the world’s more than 2000 million labour force, only
800 million or 40 per cent are socially protected as per the
definition of social protection given to this world body. The
remaining 60 percent are unprotected. Of the 77 per cent are in the
developing countries, including India.
 • ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL SECURITY
Social security is a dynamic concept which is considered almost all
countries of the world as an indispensable chapter of the national
programme to strike at the root of poverty, unemployment and
disease.
Measures adopted by different societies for protecting
the need of individuals have been manifold. Beginning with
individual act charity and philanthropy, these devices progresses to
include mutual benefit schemes, both formal and informal. The
demand for the provision of social security by the government,
issues from lack of economic security and stability, and it is a
primary duty of the government to guarantee a certain amount of
social well-being and economic security to every individual
member of the community. A new conviction has now developed
that social services are no longer a humiliating charity but a
necessary and proper duty of the modern State.
So far as means of providing social security is
concerned, there are several alternatives available to the State. The
State can organize it single-headed without counting on the
resources or cooperation of any party or organization or it can
work in conjunction with some private bodies or voluntary
organizations for the benefit of the employees, which is not
associated with the organization either through contributions or by
participating in its administration.