Pre-Budget Meeting: Skill Development & Gig Worker Safety

New Delhi, June 25 (PTI) Skill sector firms on Tuesday suggested the government work on ways to provide a safety net for gig workers, formal opportunities for construction labourers, and tax rebate for households providing social security deposits on behalf of their domestic workers.

In a pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on employment and skilling, the industry suggested ways to increase employment and improve skilling.

Anshuman Magazine, Chairman and CEO of CBRE, said that the meeting was on skilling and the government sought suggestions on what can be done on that front.

"One of the areas we really need to focus on is how to skill people," he told reporters.

Career-tech platform Internshala CEO Sarvesh Agarwal said that broadly the discussions were on how to make India the skill capital of the world.

"There were also several suggestions on the safety net for the gig workers, creating global opportunities for the college students and how to create formal opportunities for the construction workers," he said.

Industry body Indian Staffing Federation ED Sucheta Dutta said that domestic workers, who are mainly women, do not have future security and financial literacy.

"So, we suggested that if the household provides a social security deposit on behalf of the domestic worker and in return the household will get a rebate of 12 per cent in income tax," Data said.

Gayathri Vasudevan, Chief Impact Officer, Sambhav Foundation, said that the whole discussion happened on what is important for employment and skills.

"How to use NEP (national education policy) better, how can you give standard deductions to middle-class families, so that they can invest in the skill set," Vasudevan said.