More than 4 crore unorganized workers registered at e-Shram Portal, India’s first National Database on Unorganized Workers

In less than two months, more than 4 crores (40 million plus) workers have registered at the e-Shram portal. Sharing this information in a tweet message, Minister for Labour and Employment, Shri Bhupender Yadav said that by registering, the unorganized workers will be able to get the benefits of government schemes easily.

Workers in diverse occupations such as construction, apparel manufacturing, fishing, gig and platform work, street vending, domestic work, agriculture and allied, transport sector have registered at the portal.  In some of these sectors an overwhelming proportion of migrant workers are also engaged. All unorganized 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 live data, 4.09 crore workers have registered on the portal. Of these around 50.02% beneficiaries are female and 49.98% are male. It is encouraging that 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, as indicated by the graph below.

As per the latest data, the states of Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are at the fore front of this initiative with highest number of registrations, as depicted by the graph below. However, putting this number into perspective must be with caution. Smaller states and union territories (UTs) understandably have 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 hard ware workers, capital goods workers, education, healthcare, retail, tourism and hospitality, food industry and many more have registered at this portal.

Around 65.68% of these registered workers are in the age group of 16-40 years and 34.32% are in the age group of 40 years and above. The social compositions of these workers include Other Backward Castes (OBC) and General Castes with almost 43% and 27% respectively from these categories and 23% and 7% being from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

A substantial proportion of registration has been facilitated by the CSC as depicted in the graph above. 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%) have registered themselves through CSCs. There has been a week on week improvement in the outreach of the CSCs as indicated by the figure above. 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.

Shri Bhupender Yadav, Shri Rameswar Teli, Secretary Labour and Employment, Shri Sunil Barthwal(Secretary L&E) and the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) and other regional officers of CLC are holding several interactions with the unorganised workers and leaders of trade union and media, to sensitize them about the features and benefits of the e-SHRAM portal, so as to encourage the workers to register themselves through available modes and take the benefits of several social security and welfare schemes.

This 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 (on eSHRAM Card) 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 2.0 Lakh on death or permanent disability and Rs 1.0 lakh on partial disability.