Labour ministry onboards 10 welfare schemes on e-Shram portal

Government has on boarded 10 social welfare schemes on the e-Shram portal as it gears up to extend benefits of all government schemes to 300 million unorganised workers registered on the portal.

A senior government official told ET that the focus of the government is to enhance employment generation and ease of living for India’s large workforce.

“Going forward, the government will integrate all welfare schemes on the portal which will be a comprehensive database for all eligible beneficiaries in India,” the official said.


The 10 schemes or benefits now available through the portal includes ration card, PM Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G), PMAY- Urban, National Career Service portal, PM Shram Yogi Maandhan, National Disability Pension, National Widow Pension, PM Matisya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) and Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH).

The ministry of labour and employment is developing e-Shram as a one-stop solution or single window, following an announcement in the Budget 2024-25, to enable unorgansied workers to get access to all eligible schemes or benefits and help the government ensure no potential beneficiary is left out.

This is part of more than dozen initiatives that the ministry of labour and employment, for both organised as well as unorganised sector workers, has undertaken in the first 100 days of the Modi 3.0 government to enhance the welfare of India’s growing workforce .

For enhancing ease of living for the subscribers of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, the labour ministry has increased the limit for auto claims settlement to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 50,000 realier and done away with the requirement of mandatory uploading of certain documents to enable speedy settlements of advance claims.

Besides, it has put in place a centralised pension payment system, which will be effective from January 1, 2025, enabling 7.7 million pensioners of EPFO to withdraw pension from any bank across India.

Recently, EPFO has updated the manual for inspector cum facilitator and has put in place a module for surrender of exemption by establishments who want to join the retirement fund body to ensure ease of doing business for establishments.

Further, the ministry is gearing up to launch the employment-linked incentive scheme, announced in the Budget 2024-25, by end of December and has kick-started extensive stakeholder consultations at regional level to bring industry and states on board to stimulate employment creation within the organised sector.