The E-Shram Portal, launched by the Government of India in August 2021, continues to play a transformative role in the lives of millions of unorganised workers across the country.
With a goal to provide a single digital platform for workers in the informal sector, the portal has already registered over 30.58 crore workers, making it the world’s largest national database for unorganised workers.
This data includes a wide array of individuals, from agricultural laborers and domestic workers to street vendors and construction laborers.
Surge in E-Shram Portal Registrations in 2024
In 2024 alone, the E-Shram portal saw an impressive registration rate, with over 1.23 crore new workers enrolling.
This translates to an average of 33,700 daily enrollments, reflecting the growing recognition of the platform’s importance among India’s unorganised workforce.
The rapid uptake is also indicative of the increasing awareness among informal workers about the benefits of registering on the portal, which is aimed at empowering them with social security and welfare schemes.
E-Shram Portal: Centralized Hub for Welfare Schemes
One of the key features of the E-Shram portal is its ability to integrate various social security schemes across ministries and departments.
As of now, 12 major schemes from different central ministries and departments have been mapped to the portal.
These include welfare measures related to health insurance, pensions, insurance coverage, and other financial assistance that were previously difficult to access for workers in the unorganised sector.
Through this integration, registered workers become eligible for government benefits such as the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, and Ayushman Bharat Health Scheme, among others.
This ensures that the government does not leave unorganised workers, who often face difficulties accessing formal welfare benefits, behind.
Multilingual Access for Wider Reach
Understanding India’s diverse linguistic landscape, the government has made the E-Shram portal multilingual, enabling access in 22 different Indian languages.
This is a significant step toward making the platform more accessible to workers across the country, particularly in rural areas where local language proficiency may be a barrier to digital literacy.
With this multilingual feature, even workers from the most remote corners of the country can register, access, and benefit from the schemes available to them.
E-Shram Portal: Empowering India’s Informal Workforce
The E-Shram Portal’s success reflects a growing recognition of the importance of the informal sector in India’s economy, which, according to estimates, contributes nearly 50% of India’s GDP.
By digitizing the registration process and linking workers to essential welfare schemes, the government ensures that it does not exclude a crucial segment of the workforce from the safety nets enjoyed by many formal sector employees.
This digital intervention is not just about providing immediate benefits; it also aims to increase long-term social and economic stability for the country’s unorganised workers.
Moreover, as the portal continues to expand its reach, it could potentially serve as a key instrument in shaping future labor policy, with data collected through E-Shram offering insights into the needs, challenges, and vulnerabilities of India’s unorganised sector.
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