191
analysed, it would be clear that such a scheme was always financed by the citizens of the country, each time under a different heading, whether as contributors, taxpayers or consumers. The seminar, however, noted the psychological effectiveness of a tripartite participation in the financing of a social security scheme. In this connection, it also recalled that where the scope of a social security scheme was very limited, subsidies from public funds could hardly be justified: such a restricted scheme should be designed to maintain its finances by the financial participation of the parties directly concerned.
AS regards the notion of the effect of social security on productivity and on the morale of protected workers, it was pointed out that workers would work more confidently, more proudly and more regularly at their normal job, and also that they would be willing to take more risks for improving their earnings by learning new skills, changing jobs, or moving to new places, because they felt secure in the knowledge that if they were struck by socio-economic hazards in the course of their experiments, they could fall back upon social security. The seminar noted in this connection that the extent to which these favourable changes in worker outlook and behaviour could be attributed to social security was a very complex question. The author of the working paper considered that these attitudinal and behavioural changes on the part of workers were among the autonomous forces of development that precede the institution of social security.
The seminar noted that social security technology as it existed today was not meant for income redistribution. In this connection, some participants wondered whether Or not a positive redistribution could be effected by allocating an increasing portion of funds accumulated under a social security scheme for the exclusive use of the scheme's members, such as, for example, for loans, housing and other socially oriented measures. According to them, leaders of many Asian countries were confronted with the dilemma whether they should pursue employment- generating activities or welfare-optimising activities. In this connection it was considered that social security alone could not meet all the problems arising in developing countries; for example, if the employment market was dark and there was considerable underemployment, an unemployment benefits scheme would not be sufficient to take care of the needs of unemployed or underemployed persons; if the industrial progress is at the stage of utilising rather elementary but dangerous techniques creating a lot of industrial injuries, an employment injury benefits scheme alone could not take care of the protection of workers against industrial hazards. Those simple examples indicated that social security worked best when all the related measures of protection were undertaken and implemented. The seminar also noted that commitment to social security had some side effects in stimulating government action in providing all the supporting measures for the general standards of society with regard to safety, health and well-being, SO that social security could perform its functions adequately.
6.
a
Social security planning in industrialised and developing countries, with special reference to Asia (working paper prepared by Vladimir Rys)
The seminar started its discussion on the paper with the consideration of an ideal period for planning, and after an exchange of views on this aspect noted that plan did not have to be one single document covering the entirety of all fore- seeable futures; it could be a structure of a variety of plans with different degrees of implementation envisaged, which could be mixed into different phases of action. Having a structure of plans in this way would be useful for any society, because it would at least serve the purpose of informing the public, sharing with their aspirations and reducing the uncertainties.
makers,
As regards the relation between the role of planners and that of decision it was noted that there should be a straightforward demarcation between the two, since political decisions could be only based on the authority given to the government
by the people of the country, and planners were no more than technicians who should be satisfied with their role of preparing the technical content of the political decision. In this connection it was also indicated that a social plan should be prepared in such a way that every citizen could easily understand it,
and that this would contribute towards very careful decision making by politicians.
In
view of the fact that, in a number of cases, social security schemes which had been introduced one by one according to particular needs at different times,
E-1195-2K: 5