Aadhaar mandatory to avail benefits under Social Security Code, says Labour Ministry

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Labour Ministry on Wednesday made Aadhar a mandatory identification proof for both the the organised and the unorganised workers in order to avail the benefits under the Social Security Code.

Speaking at an informal interactive session, Labour Secretary Apurva Chandra said, "Section 142 of the Social Security Code was notified in the gazette. The purpose of the notification of this section is that the Ministry of Labour is now legally empowered to collect numbers for all workers to whom social benefits are to be given."

A database of the Aadhar numbers of the unorganised workers will be prepared by the National Informatics Centre and will be rolled out in the next 2-3 months, Chandra added.

Article 142 of the Code on Social Security, 2020 states that employees or unorganised workers must register as beneficiaries to avail social security benefits and social 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," said Section 142 of the Code.

Furthermore, as per Section 142 of the social security code, "Aadhar shall be mandatory for seeking benefit whether in kind, cash or medical sickness benefit or pension, gratuity or maternity benefit or any other benefit or for withdrawal of fund.

"For the other benefits and other schemes also, we can start collecting Aadhar. When the social security code becomes effective which may take whatever time now so thereafter the social security benefits will be provided through Aadhar, Labour Secretary said.

So now we will start creating the databases of the organised and unorganized workers and subsequently these databases will be used for extending the benefits, he added.

According to the secretary, the basic objective of the move is to reduce the  duplication and wastage of benefits.

The Code on Social Security, 2020 is among the four labour codes enacted by the Parliament in 2020.

The code has for the first time extended social security benefits like maternity leave, disability insurance, gratuity, health insurance and old age protection to workers in the country’s booming unorganized sector. These include gig workers, platform workers, contract workers, freelancers and home-based workers.

As per an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report published in 2020, there are currently 400 million unorganised workers in India.