Summary

The Mathadi Model in Maharashtra came into existence after the Maharashtra Mathadi, Hamal and Other Manual Workers (Regulation of Employment and Welfare) Act, 1969, was enacted. The law established a tripartite structure – Mathadi Boards – a regulatory system aimed to overcome many of the problems historically faced by the Mathadi workers, such as a lack of job security and access to social security. Mathadi Boards are the inspiration for this event and discussion. The tripartite structure brings into conversation and negotiation three sets of stakeholders- workers, state and labour users.

In a similar vein, the discussion in this event, “Achieving Comprehensive Social Protection - Role of Welfare Boards and Tripartitism”, seeks to bring together diverse stakeholders related to various informal labour sectors that may benefit from such a regulatory structure, or have experience with a different successful regulatory structure, as well as policymakers from the regional national and international levels, together with scholars from academia to discuss this tripartite model, and improvement, strengthening and possible transferability and adaptation to additional sectors. The goal of the workshop is to explore promising and durable ways to provide social protection for informal workers, discuss the challenges in achieving comprehensive social protections, the needs of workers and labour users in different sectors, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Mathadi tripartite structure.

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Key findings of the "Transferability of Mathadi Board’s" project are accessible here: [English] [Marathi] [Hindi]