Over 40 Million Unorganised Workers Register At E-Shram Portal

While the largest number of workers registered with the government are from the agriculture and construction sectors, there are also those from the apparel and fishing sectors who have recently been documented.

In less than two months, more than 40 million workers have registered at the e-Shram portal, Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav said in a tweet message.

Workers in diverse occupations such as manufacturing, gig and platform work, street vending, domestic work, agriculture and allied transport sectors have also registered at the portal.

Sharing the information in a social networking site, Yadav said that by registering, the unorganized workers will be able to get the benefits of government schemes easily.

In some of these sectors, an overwhelming proportion of migrant workers are also engaged. All unorganised workers including migrant workers can now take the benefits of various social security and employment-based schemes through registration at the e-Shram portal.

As per the data, 4.09 crore workers have registered on the portal. Of these, around 50.02 per cent beneficiaries are female and 49.98 per cent are male.

It is encouraging that an equivalent proportion of men and women have been part of this drive. There has been weekly improvement in the registrations by gender, with men and women workers registering at comparable proportions.

Smaller states and union territories (UTs) understandably have a lesser number of registered workforce. Also, this drive needs to gain momentum in states and UTs such as Meghalaya, Manipur, Manipur, Goa and Chandigarh.

The largest number of workers registered is from agriculture and construction, given the sheer volume of these two sectors in employment generation in India.

Besides, workers from diverse and different occupations like domestic and household workers, apparel sector workers, automobile and transport sector workers, electronics and hardware workers, capital goods workers, education, healthcare, retail, tourism and hospitality, food industry and many more have registered at this portal.

The social compositions of these workers include Other Backward Castes (OBC) and General Castes with almost 43 per cent and 27 per cent respectively from these categories and 23 per cent and 7 per cent being from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

A substantial proportion of registration has been facilitated by the Common Service Centres (CSC).

Interestingly, in certain states like Kerala and Goa and in North-East India, Meghalaya and Manipur, a greater proportion of individuals have self-registered in the portal. Similar is the case with most Union Territories like Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Andaman & Nicobar and Ladakh.

However, according to the latest updates, an overwhelming proportion of workers (77 per cent) have registered themselves through CSCs.

Therefore, outreach of the CSCs emerges to be a crucial factor in lesser facilitated areas. Workers are encouraged to visit their nearest CSCs to register themselves at the portal and take advantage of this exercise which would lead to greater portability and last mile delivery of various welfare programmes.

The registration would facilitate delivery and accessibility to crucial welfare programmes and various entitlements meant for the workers in the unorganized sector and employment.

For online registrations, individual workers can use E-Shram’s mobile application or the website. They can also visit the Common Service Centres (CSC), State Seva Kendra, Labour Facilitation Centres, selected post offices of the Department of Posts’ Digital Seva Kendras, to register themselves in this portal.

After registration at e-Shram portal, the unorganised workers shall receive a digital e-Shram card and they can update their profiles/particulars through portal or mobile app.

They will have a Universal Account Number that will be acceptable across the country and now they will not be required to register at different places for obtaining social security benefits.

If a worker is registered at the e-Shram portal and meets with an accident, he/she will be eligible for Rs 2 lakh on death or permanent disability and Rs one lakh on partial disability.