Over 1 cr informal workers registered on e-Shram portal

Over one crore unorganised workers have registered themselves at e-Shram portal, the labour ministry said on Sunday.

More than 1 crore unorganised workers registered at e-Shram portal, which is India's first national database on unorganised workers, the ministry said in a statement.

The drive to facilitate registration of migrant workers at e-Shram portal received huge attention since its launch on August 26, 2021, it added.

In almost 24 days, over 1 crore workers have registered at the portal, according to the statement.

This is the first-ever concentrated step towards generating a comprehensive database of the unorganised workers from different sectors like construction, apparel manufacturing, fishing, gig and platform work, street vending, domestic work, agriculture and allied, transport sector and so on.

An overwhelming proportion of migrant workers are engaged in these sectors of work.

These migrant workers also can now take the benefits of various social security and employment-based schemes through registration at the e-Shram portal.

As per the Economic Survey 2019-20, there are an estimated 38 crore unorganised workers (UW) in the country, which would be targeted to register on this portal.

During the launch of and subsequent handover of the website to the states, Union Minister of Labour & Employment and Environment, Forest & Climate Change Bhupender Yadav and Minister of State Rameshwar Teli underscored that the states will be the primary agency to mobilise and register the unorganised sector workers of their respective state/UTs on the e-Shram portal.

Bhupender Yadav also mentioned that this data can be utilised by the state/UT governments for the delivery of various social security schemes to unorganised workers as per eligibility.

Further, Bhupender Yadav and Rameswar Teli, Apurva Chandra (secretary, labour and employment) and the chief labour commissioner (central) and other regional officers of CLC are interacting with the unorganised workers and leaders of trade union and media. This is to sensitise them about the features and benefits of the recently launched the e-Shram portal for creating a national database of unorganised sector workers, it added.

Also, the CLC(C) held five such meetings to bolster the registration exercise and this was met with huge success.

As of now, 1,03,12,095 workers have registered in the portal, the ministry stated.

Of these, around 43 per cent of the beneficiaries are female and 57 per cent are male, it added.

However, so far, there has not been any registration from the third gender, it also added.

As per the latest data, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are at the forefront of this initiative with the highest number of registrations.

However, putting this number into perspective must be with caution. Smaller states and union territories (UTs) understandably have a lesser number of registered workforce, it stated.

Also, the ministry said this drive needs to gain momentum in states and UTs such as Kerala, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir and Chandigarh.

This registration would facilitate delivery and accessibility to crucial welfare programmes and various entitlements meant for the workers in the unorganised sector and employment.

If a worker is registered at the e-Shram portal and meets with an accident, he/she will be eligible for Rs 2 lakh on death or permanent disability and Rs 1 lakh on partial disability.

The largest number of workers registered are from agriculture and construction, given the sheer volume of these two sectors in employment generation in India, it stated.

Besides, workers from diverse and different occupations like domestic and household workers, apparel sector workers, automobile and transport sector workers, electronics and hardware workers, and capital goods workers, among others, have registered at this portal, the ministry stated.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)