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.
Suresh and Shaikh did not know each other, but they had something in common: As part of India's informal workforce, they were both enrolled in the Union government's e-Shram portal.
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.
"We are poor people. The government said they will help us, but it's such a long process to get the money we deserve. What was the point of enrolling in a portal where we can see no benefits?"Sher Khan, Shaikh's brother-in-law, told The Quint
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.
But First, the Need For a Centralised Database
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".
At present, the portal recognises 400 occupations classified into 30 different categories, including construction workers, migrant workers, street vendors, domestic workers, and rickshaw pullers, among others.
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.
"Between August 2021 and December 2021, the portal had registered around 17.7 crore workers. By December 2022, the number increased to 28.5 crore. But almost 1.5 years later, as of September, the registrations have only reached 30.9 crore. This suggests that there are challenges in scaling up registration and reaching more workers."Shalaka Chauhan
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.
Online Registrations Not as Easy as They Seem
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.
"Sometime in September 2023, my friend told me that if I get the e-Shram card, I will get health insurance, pension after I turn 60, and in case I die during work, my family will get Rs 2 lakh. I am nearing 50 and have several health issues. I thought getting the card would help me reduce my health expenses. But I am neither educated nor do I own a smartphone. So, for a long time, I did not know how to get the card. I then reached out to a local NGO who helped me out and made my card for free."Mannan Mandal
Experts opine that though the Ministry of Labour and Employment provides the framework for registration, the portal's success depends on whether an unorganised worker comes forward to register or not.
But, no matter what, a big challenge is obviously the digital divide, added Benoy Peter.
"The portal is completely online, so it negates the fact that digital inequality in India is still huge. Many workers lack access to smartphones and affordable internet. They have to rely on some facilitation centres due to technological challenges," he said.
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.
"Since I don't own a mobile phone, I had to get my Aadhaar card linked to my husband's number. I don't know how to use a mobile phone. I had to wait for my husband to take leave from work to go to a (CSC) centre with the help of the NGO to get it processed."
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.
"I've noticed that many women have linked their Aadhaar with the phone numbers of their husbands. Most often, the husbands are out at work. In case an OTP (one time password) comes, they won't have the digital knowledge to check their phone and tell us. In many cases, the phone is probably in their native village. In such cases, it becomes very difficult."Raju, Bal Vikas Dhara
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.
"I earn Rs 300 a day, and I was forced to spend Rs 50 to go to a CSC and update my Aadhaar card. I then had to wait till September to finally proceed with my registration," Kumar said.
As of 18 September, 59 percent of registrations were assisted registrations, and just 39 percent through self-registration.
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,
"I went to my village in 2023. My friends and I went to a nearby CSC to get the registration done, but we were told that we had to pay Rs 200 as fee. At first, I did not have the money to do it. But I had to because I felt it was important and will be of use in the future. But the government needs to be mindful that we can't afford Rs 200."Naveen Pandit to The Quint
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.
"The site crashes multiple times. Sometimes, we get notices saying there's maintenance work between 9 am to 5 pm. Sometimes even when we add the correct OTP, the website says it's wrong. It's hard enough to have convince them to do this. Once such issues happen, workers lose interest. They ask us, 'What incentive do we get by doing this?' It's unlikely that they would come back to register again," Raju told The Quint.
'Where Are the Benefits?': Lack of Clarity on Social Security Schemes
"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.
"Humne card to banva diya hai. Abhi government se support milega to milega, nahi to nahi milega (We've made the card. We'll now have to see if we get some support or not)," said Mandal from West Bengal.
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."
"For instance, registering on e-Shram does not automatically ensure welfare benefits for workers. It does not give direct access to all the schemes. Workers will have to individually fulfill all the requirements of every scheme listed. But my question is, workers could have done that if they wanted to even without an e-Shram card? People are not tech-savvy, they won't know how to apply for such schemes. It is also unclear what happens to existing state government registries under this scheme."Shalaka Chauhan to The Quint
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 ministry is continuously working to ensure targeted delivery of various social security schemes being implemented by Central as well as state and UT governments... e-Shram has been integrated with National Career Services, Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan, Skill India Digital Hub, myScheme, UMANG etc. Discussion for integration with various other Central ministries and departments is underway."Directorate General of Labour and Welfare
'Went From Pillar to Post, But No Clarity on How to Claim Benefits'
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.
As of 26 August, only 391 unorganised workers have benefited under this scheme, and a "few are being processed," the RTI revealed.
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.
"Suresh had made his e-Shram card through the camp we set up in September 2021, but he passed away in November. Immediately, we called the e-Shram toll free number, and they asked us to start the claim online, which we did. But no response as of now. The family also visited the District Magistrate's office in Hyderabad to initiate the claim, but officials themselves were unaware of how to start the process."Shaik Salauddin to The Quint
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:
"The process to claim compensation is very long. There are multiple documents needed like an FIR copy, death certificate, and e-Shram registration date. His family does not know the date, and despite making multiple calls to the toll free number, we haven't received a response. We are also struggling to get the FIR from the police... There is a need for better clarity on the process, and more awareness amongst officials too..."Amol Londhe to The Quint
"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.
"Only 391 beneficiaries is a small fraction... I'm sure that more number of accidental deaths have taken place, but people are unaware of the claim process. Who will guide them?" he asked.
(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.)
What's The Way Forward?
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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