For gig workers, e-Shram registration is just the start

In a major development for platform workers amid the discussions on the 2025 Union Budget, four major aggregators – Urban Company, Zomato, Blinkit and Uncle Delivery – have registered their workers on the e-Shram portal, joining an initiative of the ministry of labour and employment to register themselves and their gig employees.

- Vidhya Soundararajan

e-Shram is the national database of unorganised workers, through which registered workers could avail of recognition and social security benefits.

While the portal has been active since 2021 and has seen a few hundred million registrations until the end of last year, the efforts to formally bulk onboard platform workers by their aggregators came to fruition earlier this week. The move is expected to encourage more aggregators to register their workers in real-time, expanding coverage and potential benefits for the gig economy workforce.

Why is this significant? Given the ever-increasing number of platform workers (a Niti Aayog report expects gig workers to rise to 23.5 million by 2029-30), there is a need to bring them under a social security net. In India, platform workers are not recognised as employees and, hence, cannot avail minimum wages or benefits from other labour laws including provident fund or social security benefits.