The Contribution-based Social Security Scheme is slowly gaining momentum as more and more private sector firms have started showing interest in joining the much-talked-about welfare plan meant for formal private-sector workers.

Soon after the government came up with the plan to provide loans to registered contributors to the scheme, various organisations have pledged to enrol with the scheme, which has not seen expected progress so far.

Representatives of Nepal Federation of Saving and Credits Cooperatives Union Ltd, National Cooperative Bank Ltd and Association of Small Farmers Cooperatives on Monday jointly committed to enrolling their staff.

Thousands of workers associated with various cooperatives, NGOs, schools and other firms across the country are expected to join the scheme that offers old-age pension, medical treatment, health protection, maternity coverage, accidents, and disability compensation.

“Our organisation has nearly 28,000 workers who will soon be enrolled with the scheme. Many have already signed up,” DB Basnet, chairperson of Nepal Federation of Saving and Credits Cooperatives Union Ltd, told the Post.

According to Basnet, there are nearly 60,000 employees working for various cooperatives across the country.

“Every worker and private sector organisations have to mandatorily register with the scheme to protect their workers. Therefore, workers engaged with cooperatives must register for the scheme as well,” said Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Gokarna Bista.

The comprehensive welfare scheme, launched in November last year, has so far been marked with sluggish progress. The registration target was abysmally low when its deadline ended last month.

After extending the registration deadline by a month, the government announced the plan to provide loans to the scheme contributors in a bid to bolster registration—and it seems to have worked.

Even private schools, which had earlier refused to join the scheme arguing that the programme was not feasible for small and middle-level schools, have warmed up to the scheme.
Representatives of the National Private and Boarding Schools’ Association Nepal—an umbrella organisation of nearly 3,000 private schools—which had said in a statement last month that they cannot implement the scheme, have now expressed their commitment that they would be enrolling their workers as well.

On Sunday, they pledged their support to the scheme and said some schools have already registered while others would soon be joining in.