ABSTRACT
The lack of social protection has often been used as a criterion to identify those in informal employment. Traditionally, financing of many social security schemes has been contributory (with both employers and employees contributing differing amounts) or exclusively employer-liability schemes where the entire cost is borne by the employer. India has experimented with a number of social welfare (benefits) schemes that offer a modicum of social protection that are not financed through such employer-liability or contributory schemes but are financed through publicly levied “cesses” or taxes upon the industry concerned to finance the payment of such welfare benefits. This chapter examines the method of financing minimum forms of social protection through the system of “cess-financing” (levied as a duty on total turnover or sales) used in India and its relevance today to provide social protection not just for the directly employed persons but also for others who are self-employed in the industry concerned.
