Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mansukh Mandaviya has conveyed that the government is looking at ways to provide social security benefits to the gig and platform workers of the country.
According to Mandaviya, as part of the government’s endeavour to ensure the well-being of gig and platform workers, the process of their registration will be facilitated by the eShram portal. Aggregators that rely heavily on gig and platform workers will be asked to register their employees on this portal using the online window provided for the purpose.
The Labour Ministry will be working with all concerned to create a framework capable of keeping pace with the rapidly evolving work environment and offering adequate protection to gig and platform workers via various social-security schemes and programmes. The Indian government seems determined to come up with a reliable strategy to make this happen.
An important step in the right direction has been the Code on Social Security, which now clearly defines gig workers and acknowledges their roles as formally in India.
The eShram portal was seen as a way to benefit India’s unorganised sector workers; so that they are able to access government benefits and services at one go. The Ministry of Labour and Employment has been endeavouring to make the portal a comprehensive solution for the unorganised sector by bringing all government schemes meant for them onto the platform. The portal, therefore, is the biggest database of unorganised sector workers possessing details of about 300 million workers including migrant labour, domestic workers, self-employed people and small shopkeepers. On registering with the portal, they are given a Universal Account Number, linked with their Aadhaar,
