I feel happy to be present with all of you at this important occasion in the history of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation. Today it celebrates its Golden Jubilee. This is by no means a small achievement. The EPF is indeed a tribute to the vision and foresight of our national leaders who had created this organisation fifty years ago. Within two years of India becoming a Sovereign Republic, a legislation called the Employees Provident Funds & Miscellaneous Provisions Act was passed by the Parliament in 1952. This has been a veritable boon for our organised workers for the last 50 years.

The Constitution of India had the aspirations of a new-born Republic enshrined under the Directive Principles of State Policy. The role of the State in social assistance and social security mandated under the Directive Principles was still a distant dream on account of the acute lack of resources that followed 200 years of colonial rule. As we look back in time standing at the 50th milestone we see an organisation that extends old age income security and insurance cover to over 32 million workers and their families across the length and breadth of this vast country. The EPF currently runs a fully funded system with a corpus of over Rs. 1,45,000 crores and insulates non-State members of the organised workforce in our factories, commercial establishments, educational establishments, and public corporations, from the vagaries of life. Over the years it has protected its members and their families against poverty after exit from the work place or in the unfortunate circumstance of loss of life.

I understand that the Employees' Provident Fund has set for itself a challenging agenda designed in a project mode titled 'Re-inventing EPF India'. This project seeks to change the working of EPF India from being a traditional Government style bureaucratic organisation into a customer focussed service delivery organisation that meets standards that are benchmarked against the best in the world. EPF seeks to leverage current and emerging Information and Communication Technologies and network solutions to centralise and optimise back office processing at a state of the art national facility being put up in place at Dwarka in Delhi and to de-centralise and move client related activities closer to the homes and workplaces of its constituents spread all across India. Through this process EPF seeks to provide 'any time any where' service to its members to cover an increasingly mobile workforce.

EPF should quickly upgrade its procedures, acquire and position the required technology and processes, absorb and internalise the changed way of working and bring about a change in its mindset and raise the level of its sensitivity to their less privileged client base.

The sooner is EPF able to accomplish this task, the better would it be able to contribute to the national effort of closing the large coverage gap in the workforce of our country. Our efforts at improving healthcare for our citizens have resulted in increased longevity. However, this accomplishment has also raised the financial and social cost of old age income provisioning. With traditional support systems like the joint family structure coming under increased pressure on account of various reasons, alternative structures and opportunities have to be created to cater to the changing scenario.

The sooner is EPF able to accomplish this task, the better would it be able to contribute to the national effort of closing the large coverage gap in the workforce of our country. Our efforts at improving healthcare for our citizens have resulted in increased longevity. However, this accomplishment has also raised the financial and social cost of old age income provisioning. With traditional support systems like the joint family structure coming under increased pressure on account of various reasons, alternative structures and opportunities have to be created to cater to the changing scenario.

I wish the officers and staff of the Employees Provident Fund as well as the Ministry of Labour all the very best on this happy occasion.

JAI HIND !

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