29 March 2025, New Delhi: In a significant step towards extending social security coverage to gig economy workers, over 70,000 gig workers across India have been onboarded onto the eShram portal, a parliamentary panel has observed. The committee further projected that nearly 35 lakh workers are expected to become eligible for registration on the portal in the financial year 2025-26.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, chaired by BJP Member of Parliament Basavaraj Bommai, noted in its report that as of 19th February this year, a total of 70,306 gig workers from 36 states and Union Territories had been successfully registered on the eShram portal. These workers are employed across ten major e-commerce and platform-based companies, including Zomato, Blinkit, Uncle Delivery, Urban Company, Swiggy, Uber, Rapido, Ola, Zepto, and Ecom Express.
The committee commended the Ministry of Labour and Employment’s efforts to integrate gig and platform workers into the formal social security net but stressed the need for a more proactive approach to cover the vast unorganised workforce. It suggested that authorities expedite the process of identifying and aggregating gig workers so that social security and healthcare benefits can be extended to this growing section of the workforce.
The eShram portal is a digital database aimed at creating a comprehensive registry of unorganised sector workers, enabling them to access a range of welfare schemes and social security benefits. It is envisioned as a “one-stop solution” that consolidates information and links various schemes under a single umbrella. The portal has so far mapped twelve social welfare and security schemes, including the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
According to the committee report, more than 30.63 crore unorganised sector workers have been registered on the eShram portal so far. However, the committee highlighted concerns that a large chunk of gig workers, who form a significant part of the unorganised workforce, are still left out of this digital registry. The panel urged the ministry to expedite verification and onboarding of these workers and explore targeted strategies to ensure their inclusion.
It further suggested that the Ministry of Labour and Employment collaborate with the National Health Authority (NHA) to ensure that registered workers can seamlessly avail themselves of healthcare and social welfare benefits through proper handholding and awareness initiatives.
The committee stressed that the growing gig and platform economy, fuelled by app-based services and e-commerce platforms, needs special attention from policymakers. It underlined that gig workers are often deprived of job security, health insurance, and other social security measures due to the informal nature of their employment.
“The ministry needs to redefine its outreach strategy, focusing on the emerging employment paradigm of gig and platform workers,” the report stated, adding that this would require government handholding and collaboration with e-commerce platforms to identify, educate, and onboard workers onto the eShram portal.
The committee’s recommendations come at a time when the gig economy is witnessing rapid growth in India, with millions of workers engaged as delivery agents, drivers, and service providers across various platforms. Analysts believe that ensuring access to social security schemes and health insurance for these workers is crucial, especially given the precarious nature of their employment and lack of formal work contracts.
The eShram initiative, launched in 2021, is seen as a major reform towards formalising the unorganised sector workforce. The parliamentary panel’s latest observations aim to accelerate the inclusion of gig workers into this digital ecosystem and enable them to access social protection measures in a structured manner.
The ministry is expected to evaluate and implement the panel’s recommendations in the upcoming fiscal year, with a clear target of adding nearly 35 lakh gig and platform workers to the portal by 2025-26.
Source: Jatin Takkar, The Economic Times
