The government has taken a move to prepare a complete database of workers in formal and informal sectors with the aim of making the country’s labour management digitalised and ensuring skill development of the workforce.
The labour ministry has prepared a project proposal namely Bangladesh Labour Information Management System and sent it to the Planning Commission for its approval.
After getting approval of the project, the labour identification numbers would be given to a total of 3 lakh workers from formal and informal sectors, including tea garden, readymade garments, pharmaceuticals, tannery and ship breaking industries on a pilot basis by 2023, labour ministry officials said.
At the same time, information of some 10,000 factories and establishments would be included in the system.
‘We have submitted a development project proforma to the Planning Commission and we hope that the project proforma will be approved within a short time,’ labour secretary Md Ehsan-E-Elahi told New Age recently.
He said that there were some observations on the DPP from the project evaluation committee in the Planning Commission and the labour ministry has already submitted a report on it.
‘A complete database of workers is an immediate need for our ministry as it is not possible to take any plan on the labour sector without knowing the number of workers,’ Ehsan said.
A database is important to implement the decision on eliminating child labour by 2025 and determining beneficiaries of incentives provided by the government, the labour secretary said.
He also said that preparing a full database of workers was also a requirement from global stakeholders, including the International Labour Organisation and the European Union.
Under the project, detailed information about workers in formal and informal sectors will be preserved to determine the level of their skills, officials of the ministry said.
Once the labour information management system is introduced, workers in formal and informal sectors will get registered with the labour ministry.
Under the system, workers’ world get labour identification numbers and their service books would be digitalised, the officials said.
The digital database would also be helpful in determining the beneficiaries for some of the incentives and assistance the government provides.
