Labour ministry to give statutory powers to the labour bureau

The labour ministry will soon give statutory powers to the labour bureau to become a one-point of information on all labour related data, more than seven decades after the body was formed. A provision to this effect will be made in the labour codes.
"Necessary provisions in codes and rules will be provided to give statutory powers to Labour Bureau," labour secretary Heeralal Samariya said. Samariya was speaking at the launch of the official logo of labour bureau.

Labour bureau was established as Directorate of Cost of Living at Shimla in 1941 with the objective of conducting family budget enquiries and compiling cost of living index numbers for important centres on a uniform basis.

However, it was rechristened as Labour Bureau in 1946 after a need was felt for more comprehensive labour statistics in the context of formulation of labour policies.

Since then the labour bureau is engaged in collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination of statistics on labour, the ministry said in a statement.

The current mandate of the labour bureau is to compile important indicators like consumer price index for industrial workers, agricultural and rural labour numbers for industrial, agricultural and rural numbers for industrial, agricultural and rural labourers besides wage rate indices and data on employment and unemployment.