For gig workers, e-Shram registration is just the start
The key issue will be to enforce aggregator accountability and make sure that all aggregators share data on the portal
In a major development for platform workers amid the discussions on the 2025 Union Budget, four major aggregators – Urban Company, Zomato, Blinkit and Uncle Delivery — have registered their workers on the e-Shram portal, joining an initiative of the ministry of labour and employment to register themselves and their gig employees. e-Shram is the national database of unorganised workers, through which registered workers could avail of recognition and social security benefits. While the portal has been active since 2021 and has seen a few hundred million registrations until the end of last year, the efforts to formally bulk onboard platform workers by their aggregators came to fruition earlier this week. The move is expected to encourage more aggregators to register their workers in real-time, expanding coverage and potential benefits for the gig economy workforce.
Why is this significant? Given the ever-increasing number of platform workers (a Niti Aayog report expects gig workers to rise to 23.5 million by 2029-30), there is a need to bring them under a social security net. In India, platform workers are not recognised as employees and, hence, cannot avail minimum wages or benefits from other labour laws including provident fund or social security benefits.
Aggregators have long argued that gig workers operate on flexible hours across multiple platforms, making them contractors rather than full-time employees (although this has been changing with some aggregators offering full-time employment with minimum work hours). Several European countries have already recognised platform workers as employees in an effort to provide social security. Since India has not granted gig workers full employee status, welfare boards and national databases like e-Shram become critical for providing them with a basic safety net. By consolidating worker information and ensuring platform companies take responsibility for registering their workers, e-Shram is a step toward formal recognition and better access to social security schemes like insurance, pensions, and financial assistance.
The digital nature of platform work makes registration on a portal/board much more seamless compared to traditional unorganised sector workers, who have historically struggled with bureaucratic hurdles, lack of awareness, and low literacy levels. A stark contrast can be seen with construction workers, one of the largest segments of unorganised labour. Despite the Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board (BOCW) collecting a cess from builders to fund social security, much of the money remained underutilised due to poor registration. Construction workers, typically migrants lacking contracts and formal employment records, were unable to access these benefits, as contractors rarely took the initiative to register them. Things can potentially be promisingly different for today’s platform workers in transportation, home delivery and housekeeping sectors, or even for future construction workers who might work through platforms, thanks to the digital revolution. Apart from e-Shram, which is a national initiative, several state governments like Rajasthan and Karnataka have already been taking initiatives to create state-level welfare boards. Through e-Shram, the Centre will have a national database of unorganised workers. But this will serve more than just a registry. Workers can be linked to various government schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) to enable obtaining benefits or get to know of employment opportunities through integration with other portals like Skill India Digital and Gati Shakti initiative and National Career Service (NCS) Portal.
On the e-Shram portal, 306 million workers have been enrolled until the end of January, the largest group being agricultural workers, followed by domestic/household workers, workers in construction, apparel, miscellaneous (including street vendors, salesmen and delivery persons), and automobile/transportation. The highest number of registrations is from Uttar Pradesh, followed by Bihar and West Bengal. It is unclear from the dashboard as to what share of these are platform workers, but since the registration process now collects this information, the government can start publishing this data soon.
In the Union Budget 2025 speech, it was announced that gig workers would have easier registration on the e-Shram platform (which appears to be progressing), receive identity cards, and gain access to health care benefits under PMJAY. However, implementation challenges persist. The key issue will be to enforce aggregator accountability and make sure that all aggregators share data on the portal. But the real test will be whether the government and aggregators take concrete steps beyond registration — such as ensuring direct social security contributions, health benefits, and financial protections — to truly improve conditions for gig workers. For example, there is little clarity right now on the procedures to avail of benefits even after registration. The details need to be ironed out.
Vidhya Soundararajan is a microeconomist and works on labour, development and finance. The views expressed are personal