Karachi: The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) has so far enrolled over 88,000 labourers in Sindh by issuing them the Benazir Mazdoor Cards (BMCs) for registering them under a fully computerised system to ensure their welfare along with their families.

This was briefed to the Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister, Saeed Ghani, as he met the Chairman and other relevant officials of NADRA as the meeting reviewed the progress so far made in issuing BMCs to the properly registered labourers in the province.

Around two years ago the Sindh Employees’ Social Security Institution (SESSI) signed a contract with the NADRA for issuing BMCs for registering labourers in the province for their welfare.

The NADRA uses its existing nationwide computerised database of citizens for verifying particulars of the labourers and their family members for providing them with several benefits under the welfare system of the SESSI.

The verification process by NADRA detects fraud cases that shouldn’t be processed for providing labour-specific benefits.

The meeting was informed that NADRA had so far printed 70,700 cards for registering the labourers while 60,665 labourers have so far received the BMCs.

Another over 500,000 workers in the province, mostly associated with the industries, will get the BMCs. In the next stage, the Sindh government aims to issue the BMCs to the workers associated with the informal sectors like daily wage earners and pushcart vendors.

Saeed Ghani told the NADRA delegation that the Sindh government had the aim that the remaining labourers in the province associated with the formal industrial sector should be issued the BMCs by May 1 this year.

He urged the NADRA officials to establish special help and registration desks at the main industrial sites and labour colonies in the province for speeding up the process of issuing the BMCs.

Similar assistance and registration desks should also be established at the hospitals and dispensaries of the SESSI where labourers and their family members routinely visit for getting treatment facilities.

The Labour Minister said that SESSI and NADRA should seek help from the representative associations of the industrialists for accelerating the process of enrolling the labourers.