The Centre recently has urged stepping up enrolment of unorganised sector workers in the e-shram portal, while also stressing that ‘platform workers’ be accorded emphasis in this regard. The e-shram portal, which was launched in August 2021, has enrolled about 300 million workers, which is an impressive achievement. It suggests that about 75 per cent of the unorganised sector workforce (which in turn accounts for about 80 per cent of the total workforce) has been enrolled.
However, there is less certainty on whether the promised benefits (pension, life insurance and accident insurance) are provided without the beneficiaries or their kith and kin running from pillar to post. According to a statement in the Lok Sabha in April 2023, ₹704 crore was allocated for the period FY20-25 for unorganised workers’ welfare schemes, of which ₹418 crore was disbursed till March 2023. This does seem underwhelming, considering the numbers enrolled. The policy focus on platform workers — those who use the ‘platform’ provided by an online aggregator — arises from their fast growth in the post-Covid years, coinciding with the growth of internet access as well as digital payments in urban areas. Their dual identity as entrepreneurs and workers gives rise to the apprehension that they may miss out on social security benefits. At present, it is not clear what proportion of such workers are enrolled on the e-shram portal, as the portal does not provide details in this regard. A drive to persuade aggregators to enrol workers is called for. At present, even the number of such workers-cum-entrepreneurs remains a mystery. The NITI Aayog study cites a figure of 7.7 million for ‘gig workers’ (which actually implies all casual labour) as of about three years ago, when it seems to imply platform workers.
Assuming that this is just an error of terminology, the number of platform workers is expected to rise to 23.5 million by 2029-30, making up 6.7 per cent of the non-agricultural workforce, against less than 3 per cent today. The Periodic Labour Force Survey makes an attempt, but it remains imprecise. Another way to figure out the number of platform workers is through the welfare board route. Here, the aggregator enlists the service providers with the board, as Rajasthan and Karnataka have envisaged, with a view to deducting a cess out of the transaction fee for welfare purposes.
However, the e-shram exercise should move towards providing uniform welfare services for all categories of ‘gig’ or unorganised workers. Platform workers should not be excluded from well-run services such as PDS, simply because they happen to own an asset. Such categories of exclusion across schemes, such as Ayushman Bharat or its equivalent, should be revisited. But at the outset, a better dataset of the number of gig and platform workers must be made available by conducting a comprehensive survey. And, the poor offtake of benefits thus far must be looked into.