Around 12 lakh gig workers and 20 online aggregators have so far registered themselves on the e-Shram portal of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, which is in the process of creating a national database of the unorganised workforce in the country.
“The on-boarding exercise on the e-Shram portal is under way. Around 10 to 12 lakh unorganised workers have been on-boarded, while 20 aggregators, including Zomato, Swiggy, and Uber, have also registered themselves. However, the aggregators are yet to register their entire workforce on the portal,” a ministry official said.
With e-Shram, the government is looking at rolling out social security benefits for gig and platform workers, including accident insurance, health coverage, maternity support, and old-age protection.
The provision is part of the framework being developed under the Code on Social Security, 2020, which seeks to give social-security benefits to people working in this app-driven segment.
The Social Security Rules, 2026, notified on May 8, require aggregators to submit details of gig and platform workers through APIs or other electronic systems within 45 days of the rules taking effect.
The ministry had noted that 18 days of the compliance period have already elapsed and asked platforms to complete the remaining formalities within the prescribed timeline to ensure uninterrupted data flow.
The aggregators had recently approached the ministry to extend the June 21 on-boarding deadline due to a lack of clarity on the exact benefits offered to the workforce.
The deadline, however, was not extended.
The official said once the national database of the workers is ready, the ministry will consult fund managers on the framework for the delivery of social benefits.
Joint Secretary Ashutosh Pednekar had said policymakers are trying to balance workers’ demand for social security with industry concerns over maintaining flexibility in a fast-growing and technology-driven sector.
“There are increasing demands for various kinds of social security measures, which have to be taken so that adequate protection is given to them,” he said.
A major part of the government’s strategy is integrating aggregator databases with the e-Shram portal to enable seamless access to welfare benefits.
“You have the databases of the aggregators as well as e-Shram, which will communicate with each other,” Pednekar said, adding that the system would allow real-time tracking of benefits availed by workers.
He added that workers would be able to digitally access details of their entitlements and usage through an app-based system.
Drawing a comparison with India’s digital public infrastructure, Pednekar said e-Shram has the potential to transform benefit delivery and improve the portability of welfare schemes for workers across platforms.
He said the gig and platform economy has emerged as a major source of employment, especially for India’s youth, and is expected to play a bigger role in the labour market in the coming years.
