The framework of social security is an important cornerstone of any modern society. It assures individuals that the society will look after their interest against vagaries of life. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines social security as a protection provided to individuals and households by the society to ensure access to health care and to guarantee income security post retirement, unemployment, sickness, invalidity, work injury, maternity or untimely demise.
As a basic human right defined in UN instruments, it is widely considered as instrumental in a healthy, positive and productive society. In India, the social security legislations derive their strength and spirit from the Directive Principles of the State Policy of the Constitution. Article 41 of the Constitution requires that the State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want. Furthermore, Article 42 expands the obligations to make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief.
Article 47 requires that the State should raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and improve public health as among its primary duties. These, thus, are the basic frameworks of Social Security provisioning for the citizenry in the country. Social Security in India was traditionally the responsibility of the family/community when the economy was still localised. However, first with gradual industrialisation post-independence, followed by a more rapid globalisation process and liberalised economy after 1991, the bonds within the community weakened and joint families fragmented into nuclear ones. This has necessitated an institutionalized response in the shape of state-cum-society regulated social security arrangement.
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