Pension, health benefits for workers on e-Shram portal

Over 270 million unorganised workers registered on the e-Shram portal will soon get pension and health benefits, over and above the accidental cover, as the labour ministry works towards enhancing the benefit basket for these workers.

Some of the beneficial schemes that can be added include Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana, the National Pension Scheme for traders and self-employed, the Atal Pension Yojana and the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, among others.

Currently, workers who register themselves on the e-Shram portal get ₹2 lakh accidental coverage under the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana. There are 279.7 million workers registered on the e-Shram portal as on date.

India has an estimated 480 million workers, out of which 380 million are in the unorganised sector and the remaining 100 million in the organised sector, getting pension and provident fund benefits.

A top government official told ET that the Centre is in talks with states to link their social security schemes with the central portal so that the number of benefits to the unorganised workers can be maximised. "This can be done by enabling migration of data between the central portal and the state portals and vice-versa," the official said.

A high-level committee under the additional secretary (labour) has been formed to finalise the standard operating procedures following which data integration will kick-start. The plan is to get the domicile and ration card details of such unorganised workers from state governments and seed them with the existing details on the portal. This will ensure that the eligibility for benefits to these workers continue even after the change of location due to reverse migration or back as had happened during the pandemic-induced lockdown.

The Social Security Code, 2020 calls for a universal social security for all workers. Besides, it allows the government to frame new policies for gig and platform workers and other unorganised workers, under the umbrella of existing social security schemes including the Employees' Provident Fund and Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).

The government has already enabled portability of e-Shram portal with the EPFO to allow mobility of workers between the unorganised and organised sectors and vice-versa.