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In November 2021, Pujari Suresh, a 30-year-old gig worker in Hyderabad and father of two, died after his taxi met with an accident. Earlier this year, 36-year-old Iliyas Shekhlal Shaikh, a construction worker in Maharashtra's Pimpri Chinchwad, allegedly died due to electrocution.
A 'one-stop solution' for all unorganised workers – including gig workers – the said portal maintains their national database and guarantees them social security, including compensation of Rs 2 lakh for accidental deaths at the workplace.
Despite that, Suresh's and Shaikh's families are still waiting for any financial assistance.
But the problem with e-Shram portal goes beyond just compensation. It remains a maze for the informal workforce thanks to its limited reach, digital inaccessibility, and lack of clarity over social security benefits.
The lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to exodus of migrant workers struggling to reach their home states, led to the launch of the e-Shram portal in August 2021 for "seamless access" of various government schemes for unorganised workers. The government had then called it a “game changer in the country's history".
As of 22 August 2024, the number of migrant workers remains much lower than other categories, according to information received through Right to Information (RTI) filed by The Quint.
Out of 7.26 lakh migrant workers registered in the portal (out of India's estimated 14 crore-strong migrant workers), only 58,000 were registered on self-declaration basis, the RTI revealed.
"7.26 lakh is nothing compared to the estimated total number of migrant workers in India. Kerala itself has 30 lakh migrant workers. This shows that migrant workers are not registering themselves. It is probably because it's much harder for migrant workers to get registered unless there is a big push," Benoy Peter, executive director at Kerala-based Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID), explained to The Quint.
As far as states go, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra together account for approximately 57.4 percent of the total registration.
The Directorate General Labour Welfare under the Ministry of Labour and Employment – responding to The Quint's RTI – also informed the following:
A total of 30.10 crore workers have registered so far (as per the Economic Survey 2021-2022, India had nearly 43.99 crore informal workers in the fiscal year of 2019-2022)
A total of Rs 408.92 crore has been spent on the portal as of August 2024. In 2021, the government had allotted Rs 704 crore for the same
Shalaka Chauhan, a PhD researcher working on social protection and the informal economy, pointed out that the pace of growth of registrations has slowed down since July 2023.
On Tuesday, 17 September, the Ministry of Labour and Employment asked platform aggregators to get all gig workers engaged by them to register on the e-Shram portal. "This registration is crucial to ensuring workers' access to social welfare schemes, while aggregators will help develop an accurate registry of beneficiaries," the ministry said.
At least 20 workers The Quint spoke to across Kerala, Pune, and Delhi-NCR were either unaware about the portal or didn't know how to register.
Like Mohammad Rafiq, a 36-year-old electrician in Pune, who said he hadn't registered on the portal because he was unaware of the process. "I watched a video recently on how to go about the process, but it was very complicated. I am not educated enough to do it by myself, and I'll have to depend on someone," Rafiq told The Quint over the phone.
A migrant worker from West Bengal who's working in Kerala, Mannan Mandal, 46, said he did manage to get his card made with some help from an NGO.
But, no matter what, a big challenge is obviously the digital divide, added Benoy Peter.
These barriers, Chauhan explained, particularly affect women. “In most families of informal sector workers, there is only one phone and one mobile number, and most often than not, it is the men who own the phones. Women who don't own a phone tend to get excluded," she said.
Like Rani Devi, a 22-year-old waste picker in Delhi's Mahipalpur. Originally from Bihar, she depends on her husband Ravi's mobile phone to make calls. Rani told The Quint that she made her e-Shram card with the help of a non-profit Bal Vikas Dhara, but with a lot of difficulty.
It took Rani Devi nearly a month to link her Aadhaar card and mobile number. Her next hurdle was that she did not have a bank account. So, she had to get her Aadhaar card linked to her husband's bank account, too. The whole process took over two months.
Raju, a community mobiliser from Bal Vikas Dhara, told The Quint, that the mandatory usage of Aadhaar-linked mobile phone numbers is a major hurdle.
Another common problem is, Raju added, is that migrant workers do not treat their mobile numbers as permanent. "Since they keep switching between jobs and cities, they tend to change their numbers frequently, further complicating the process."
Kumar (name changed on request), another waste-picker in Delhi, tried to register in July 2024 with the help of a non-profit, too. But the process was not straightforward. He had lost his mobile number linked to his Aadhaar card, so he couldn't receive the OTP. He had to first update his KYC details.
At least five workers also claimed that they were charged a fee of Rs 100-200 at the CSC to register on the portal though, as per the Ministry of Labour and Employment, registrations were free.
Naveen Pandit, a 45-year-old Uber driver from Uttar Pradesh's Etawah, said,
PhD researcher Chauhan adds that there should be more identification documents for registration to avoid "excluding a large segment of the workforce from the benefits."
(The Quint has reached out to the labour ministry regarding the mandatory usage of Aadhaar for registration on e-Shram. This story will be updated if/when they respond.)
Even if they do manage to get the workers to reach e-Shram camps, very often, their efforts could be marred due to technical glitches.
"e-Shram card matlab? Labour card toh hai humare paas, toh iss card se kya milega? (What's an e-Shram card? We already have the labour card... so what will we get out of this card?" asked a 40-year-old construction worker in Delhi, who did not wish to be named.
When The Quint asked at least 10 e-Shram card holders on what the benefits would be, not one could answer. "Humein nahi paata. (We don't know)" was the common response.
The e-Shram website itself mentions at least 13 social security schemes, including Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan Yojana and Ayushman Bharat scheme. However, experts pointed out the linkage between the e-Shram registration and existing social security schemes "is not effectively implemented."
Meanwhile, Peter said that "though e-Shram started as a data collection measure, the ultimate goal is to provide social security schemes to vulnerable workers."
Rani Devi, Kumar, and Pandit said though they were not sure about the benefits, they were hoping to receive support through the registrations if another COVID-19 lockdown-like event was to occur.
"Yeh toh election se pehle wala jumla hai... jo humara hak hai, woh to nahi mil raha hai. Bughtegein toh hum gareeb hi, na? (This just a way to secure votes from us. Sadly, we have no clarity as to what security we will receive. In the end, it's the poor who suffers," said Pandit.
When asked regarding the social security measures, the Directorate General of Labour and Welfare, in its response to the RTI application, said,
The only scheme which has been linked to e-Shram registration till now is Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) – an accident insurance scheme which ensures Rs 2 lakh for accidental deaths and full disability, and Rs 1 lakh for partial disability.
However, the RTI filed by The Quint revealed that the PMSBY scheme "could not be operationalised" due to "technical issues." In its response, the ministry said that a one-time ex-gratia benefit will be given to those workers who met with an accident, resulting in death or disability.
The families of both Suresh and Shaikh should have ideally benefited under this scheme. Yet, that's not the case.
Shaik Salauddin, state president of Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union and national general secretary, helped Suresh's family with the process to initiate compensation.
When contacted, Suresh's wife Shravani declined to speak to this reporter. "It's been three years. I am tired of speaking about this. We've tried to go to every office, but to no avail," she said.
In Shaikh's case, the family was unable to proceed with the compensation claim due to the long documentation process. Amol Londhe, centre coordinator at PCMC Workers Facilitation Centre, who is helping his family, said:
"When it comes to availing benefits, people are made to go in circles. Families of the workers who have died will prioritise their livelihood and won't be able to afford to take time off work because they will lose money. People will get fed and eventually will give up," Peter highlighted.
(The Quint reached out to the labour ministry regarding the time period between claiming and availing the benefit of the schemes. This story will be updated if/when they respond.)
Despite its shortcomings, both Chauhan and Peter agreed that the e-Shram portal was the need of the hour – and a well-designed database for informal sector workers.
"The portal has great potential in terms of connecting people with social security schemes. That should ideally be the aim – and not just that 30 crore workers have registered. Now is when the actual work starts," Chauhan noted.
Now that one-third of the informal sector workers have registered, the government should go on ground to ensure that the most vulnerable sections are not left out, she added.
Benoy Peter added it was also important to maintain "detailed data on the beneficiaries who have received benefits through the registration scheme."
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