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Updated: Jan 03, 2020 10:52 IST

The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the labour arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has asked the central government to ensure that the upcoming Union Budget lays special emphasis on social issues and welfare schemes. The trade wing wants a hike in minimum wages and more allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a social security measure that aims to guarantee the right to work.

At a meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday, BMS functionaries raised the issue of consumer spending having shown signs of a dip and urged the minister to take steps to reverse this trend. This is the second such meeting between the government and the Sangh functionaries on the issue of budget and economic revival.

“We have had reports suggesting that there is a decline in rural consumer spending. And one way to correct that is to allocate more funds for MNREGA, which will help create jobs,” said a senior functionary of the BMS.

He said the BMS, which represents over 5,000 trade unions, drew attention to the stress being faced by those involved in the unorganised sector as well as plantation and fisheries. “Those involved in plantation are starving... there is an urgent need for the government to increase minimum wages and bring those employed in the unorganised sectors under the umbrella of social security schemes,” the functionary quoted above said.

HT had earlier reported that the Sangh affiliates want the Budget to focus on rural economy as it can help revive aggregate demand and address the ongoing economic slowdown.

The BMS has also planned a nationwide protest on Friday against strategic disinvestment. In a statement issued last week, it said, “...the government must stop disinvestment, strategic sale, corporatisation and privatisation of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). The PSUs are the backbone of the Indian industrial structure and government must stop policy driven Disinvestment/privatisation of the same. FDI must be stopped. FDI/corporatisation of Defence sector is a matter of national security.”

It has urged the government to increase the threshold of income-tax limit from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh, universal social security cod, welfare boards made functional in all sectors including handloom, agriculture, construction, fishery etc; workers in the informal sector, which comprises of almost 93 per cent of India’s total workforce should be protected by law and the EPS pension should be raised to Rs 5,000 for all.