LABOUR BUREAU TO RELEASE A NEW SERIES OF CONSUMER
PRICE INDEX NUMBERS FOR INDUSTRIAL WORKERS WITH 2002 AS BASE
The Labour Bureau is to release next year a new
series of the Consumer Price Index Numbers for Industrial Workers
(CPI-IW) with an updated base to a more recent period. This was
stated by the Labour Minister Dr. Sahib Singh while presiding
over the Parliamentary Consultative Committee Meeting attached
to his Ministry here today. He said that in the present economic
environment, the Labour bureau has an important role in making
available an up-to-date and reliable database for planning labour
friendly policies. He said that the Report of the National Commission
on Labour, which has just been received, needs to be thoroughly
studied and examined by all of us including the Parliamentary
Consultative Committee.
The Minister of State for Labour Shri Ashok Pradhan
said that the Labour Bureau is an old and important institution
and the data collected by it is of immense help in framing appropriate
labour policies. He said that the Bureau which is headquartered
at Chandigarh and Shimla, has four regional offices at Kanpur
(North), Kolkata (East), Chennai (South) and Ahmedabad (West).
The Labour Secretary Dr. P.D. Shenoy informed
the Members that efforts are on to make the year 2002 as the base
for CPI-IW.
The CPI-IW is currently being compiled on base
1982=100 on monthly basis for 70 industrial centres. It is the
single most important price statistics which has significant financial
implications. It is used to regulate the dearness allowance of
Government employees and the workers in the industrial sector.
It is also employed in revision of minimum wages in scheduled
industrial employments (except rural labour), measuring of inflation
in retail prices etc.
The other important series of consumer price
indices compiled by the Labour Bureau is for the agricultural
and for rural labourers. It is compiled on the basis of prices
regularly collected by the NSSO from 600 sample villages in twenty
states on all India base 1986-87 = 100. This index is widely used
for fixation/revision of minimum wages in agricultural employments
by state governments and UT administrations. The Labour Bureau
also compiles Retail Price Indices for 31 selected commodities
for urban areas to monitor / regulate the prices of these commodities.
Other responsibility of the Bureau is to compile Wage Rate Index
Numbers for occupation in 21 industries in manufacturing, mining
and plantation sectors. The Bureau also analyses and disseminates
data collected by the NSSO under Rural Labour Enquiries, Working
Class, Family Income and Expenditure surveys and Annual Survey
of Industries. It also collects and disseminates information on
working, living and socio-economic conditions of deprived and
vulnerable sections of labour.
Participating in the discussions, the Members
called for updating the base for the consumer price index. They
said that there is considerable delay in publishing Reports by
the Bureau with the result the data becomes stale. The members
wanted that the Bureau should collect reliable statistics on specific
labour groups lie women workers, child labourers, agricultural
workers etc. They also called for re-organising the Labour Bureau.
The Members of Parliament who participated in the discussions
included Shri Jibon Roy, Shri K. Malaisamy, Shri Prabodh Panda,
Shri P. Rajendran and Shri Ramchandra Khuntia. The Meeting was
attended among others by the Director General, Labour Bureau and
senior officials in the Labour Ministry.
