Kathmandu. The 8th Social Security Day is being marked today with the slogan ‘Social Security: Access to Universal Healthcare, Pensionable Society and Protection of Citizen Life with Productivity Enhancement’.

The Day is being observed in commemoration of the day when contribution-based social security programme was announced 8 years ago with social security and employment as the main mantra for good labour relations. The government on November 26, 2018 had announced contribution-based social security scheme to implement the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution.

The social security scheme is being implemented under the leadership of the fund established with the objective of ensuring the right to social security based on the contribution of the workers and providing social security to the contributors.

Executive Director of the Fund, Kabiraj Adhikari, said that the fund’s programmes are targeted towards minimizing economic and social risk by involving all the workers in the scheme, realizing the concept of universal social security and ensuring the constitutional provision of social security based on contribution.

The EPF has been bringing the workers in the formal sector as well as the foreign employment, informal and self-employed sectors under the ambit of social security. As of Wednesday, 26.5 million citizens have been included under the social security umbrella based on contributions, according to the fund. Among them, 649,511 workers are from formal sector, 1,996,579 workers from foreign employment, 799 workers from informal sector and 582 workers from self-employed sector.

The fund has been running schemes for medical treatment, health and maternity, accident and disability, dependent family security and old age security for the workers. Executive Director Adhikari said that the workers and their families have been receiving various facilities and concessions from these schemes.

So far, Rs 95.68 billion has been collected in the fund. A total of 253,143 workers have received payment of Rs 17.72 billion in various facilities. Apart from health benefits, the fund has been providing savings interest, monthly pension after a certain period, home loan, educational loan and other concessions to the contributors.