From correspondents in Delhi, India, 03:31 PM IST

With 93 percent of India's workforce in the informal sector, an official panel has recommended the extension of the rural job guarantee programme to urban areas and called for a national minimum social security net.

The National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector has also called for a country-wide minimum wage and the laying down of minimum conditions of work to create a social floor for the vast segment of unprotected workers in the country.

The commission said the share of informal workers will continue at around 92-93 percent till 2017.

In the report, 'Challenge of Employment in India - An Informal Economy Perspective', which has been presented to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the commission has also suggested a minimum wage of Rs.100 per day at current prices, instead of a current freeze on wage rates.

Its other recommendations include:

- National labour code to simplify multiplicity if labour legislations

- Effective enforcement of work conditions and social security

- Improvement of labour administration

- Greater access to credit, skills, marketing and raw material for self-employed

- Fresh strategy to promote industrial clusters

- Creation of national funds for informal sector that can add 50 million new jobs

- Introduction of an unemployment insurance scheme

According to the commission, a provision of Rs.100 billion (Rs.10,000 crore) for an employment assurance scheme would ensure additional training-cum-employment for 10 million people with an overall development of human capital.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)