Representative Image: (REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri)
The National Database for Unorganised Workers, or the E-Shram portal, will be launched on August 26, more than a year since unorganised and migrant workers returned to their villages following the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25 to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Moneycontrol explains the benefits for workers registered on the database, the mandatory Aadhaar seeding rule and why the Supreme Court rapped the government for delaying the rollout of the database.
What is the National Database for Unorganised Workers?
The National Database for Unorganised Workers will serve as a reference point for the authorities to track and reach out to workers in the informal sector and offer them relief in times of crisis.
It will contain information about construction workers, gig and platform workers, street vendors, domestic, agriculture and migrant workers, and other similar sub-groups of unorganised workers.
Every informal sector worker will be registered in the database. Once the database is launched, informal workers will be able to seamlessly avail of benefits and social security schemes as and when the government announces them.
The database will facilitate the implementation of policies for the unorganised sector. It will help in better monitoring and supervision of government policies and ensure that benefits reach the targeted group of unorganised workers at the grassroots level.
The finance ministry approved the creation of the database in November 2020. The task of creating the database has been entrusted to the labour and employment ministry, which is collaborating with the National Informatics Centre to develop the portal.
How many unorganised/informal workers are there in India?
The International Labour Organization, in a report published this year, estimates there are 400 million unorganised workers in India. Informal workers are often deprived of basic minimum wages and social security.
The pandemic exposed and intensified the vulnerabilities of migrant workers who take up low-paid and low-skilled, temporary jobs and have limited access to social protection, making them prone to layoffs. With a database of informal workers in place, they are expected to benefit from several welfare schemes.
What is the mandatory Aadhaar seeding rule? How will workers register?
The profiles of informal workers registered on the database will be seeded with their 12-digit Aadhaar numbers and bank accounts in order to deliver benefits to them. On May 5, the labour ministry made Aadhaar a mandatory identification proof for both organised and unorganised workers in order to avail of benefits.
Article 142 of the Code on Social Security, 2020, states that employees or unorganised workers must register as beneficiaries to avail of social security benefits and social security services.
“An employee or unorganised worker or any other person, as the case may be, shall establish his identity or, as the case may be, the identity of his family members or dependants through Aadhaar number,” according to Section 142 of the Code.
Aadhaar is mandatory for receiving welfare aid, whether in kind or cash, for benefits including medical, pension, gratuity, maternity or any other benefit, and for the withdrawal of funds, it said.
Why did the Supreme Court intervene?
The Supreme Court of India pulled up the labour ministry in June for the delay in the creation of the database after informal workers were again left to fend for themselves this year after the second wave of Covid-19.
The Supreme Court, while hearing a case related to migrants and unorganised workers, said the “apathy and lackadaisical attitude by the ministry of labour and employment is unpardonable.”
The nation’s apex court directed the government in June to set up the database by July end and ensure that they receive adequate food and rations. Justices Ashok Bhushan and MR Shah had emphasised the need for registration of workers as a prerequisite to access social protection.
A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, in its report earlier this month, had also pulled up the labour ministry for the delay. The labour and employment secretary then told the panel it would be completed by August 15.
