Wrong Date of Birth force workers to forgo Provident Fund

Lakhs of employees, especially workers in the informal sector, are being forced to forgo their hard-earned Provident Fund because of anomalies in their Date of Birth (DoB).

An estimated Rs 50,000 crore of PF is lying unclaimed with the PF authorities.

While a part of this money is unclaimed owing to contributors being either dead or just forgetting about it, a large amount belongs to those from rural areas who are illiterate and do not know their date of births.

"It is a given that employees in the unorganised sectors -- small hotels, shops and establishments, in jute mills and tea gardens are not allowed to register their actual date of birth as per their knowledge. The employers arbitrarily put their names and DoB in the register as per their convenience. These often come in conflict with the DoB given in the Aadhaar card or Voter ID, prompting EPFO to reject their claims,"said Ashok Ghosh of the United Trades union Congress (UTUC).

According to Ghosh, the problem lies in the stringent conditions imposed by the EPFO for accepting DoB of workers in its notice issued in 2005.

"The hapless workers have no clue how to comply with these conditions as most of the officials in EPFO refuse to change the DoBs which their employers have arbitrarily recorded. The government should liberalise these conditions to let the workers get their legitimate money," said Ghosh.

The UTUC has recently written a letter to the minister of labour, Santosh Gangwar to allow workers to make necessary ratification in their DoBs and get their PF and pension claims.