Over 2 crore people who have signed up for the Centre’s portal for unorganised sector workers hold a Graduate Degree.

E-Shram

• On August 26, 2021, the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MOLE) launched the E-Shram, the web portal for creating a National Database of Unorganized Workers (NDUW), which will be seeded with Aadhaar.
• It seeks to register an estimated 398-400 million unorganized workers and to issue an E-Shram card.

Issues with E-Shram

(A) Time constraints

• Long process: Given the gigantic nature of registering each worker, it will be a long-drawn process.
• No gestation period: The Government has not mentioned a gestation period to assess its strategy and efficiency.
• No hasty process: Employers are or required their workers to register even. While the Government can appeal to them, any penal measure will hurt the ease of doing business.

(B) Pandemic hides

• Considering the estimated 380 million workers as the universe of registration — debatable as the novel coronavirus pandemic has pushed lakhs of workers into informality.

(C) Data security

• Privacy: One of the vital concerns of e-portals is data security, including its potential abuse especially when it is a mega-sized database.
• No national framework yet: There are also media reports pointing out the absence of a national architecture relating to data security.
• Local server issues: It has been reported that in some states such as Maharashtra, the server was down for a few days.

(D) Structural issue

• Aadhaar seeding: Many workers will not have an Aadhaar-seeded mobile or even a smartphone. Aadhaar-seeding is a controversial issue with political overtones, especially in the North-eastern regions.
• Eligibility: There are several issues concerning the eligibility of persons to register as well as the definitional issues.
• Exclusion: By excluding workers covered by EPF and ESI, lakhs of contract and fixed-term contract workers will be excluded from the universe of UW. Hazardous establishments employing even a single worker will have to be covered under the ESI, which means these workers also will be excluded.
• No benefits for the aged: The NDUW excludes millions of workers aged over 59 from its ambit, which constitutes age discrimination.

(D) Complex identities of workers

• Migration: Many are circular migrant workers and they quickly, even unpredictably, move from one trade to another.
• Mixed work: Many others perform formal and informal work as some during non-office hours may belong to the gig economy, for example as an Uber taxi or a Swiggy employee. They straddle formal and informal sectors.
• Gig workers: Even though MOLE has included gig workers in this process, it is legally unclear whether the gig/platform worker can be classified first as a worker at all.

(E) Other impediments

• Dependence on States: The central government will have to depend on the state governments for this project to be successful.
• Lack of coordination: In many States, the social dialogue with the stakeholders especially is rather weak or non-existent. The success of the project depends on the involvement of a variety of stakeholders apart from trade unions.
• Corruption: There is also the concern of corruption as middle-service agencies such as Internet providers might charge exorbitant charges to register and print the E-Shram cards.

Benefits: No immediate carrot

• Workers stand to gain by registration in the medium to long run.
• But the instant benefit of accident insurance up to ₹0.2 million to registered workers is surely not an attractive carrot.
• The main point of attraction is the benefits they stand to gain during normal and crisis-ridden periods such as the novel coronavirus pandemic now which the Government needs to disseminate properly.

Way forward

• E-Shram is a vital system to provide hitherto invisible workers much-needed visibility.
• It will provide the Labour Market Citizenship Document to them.
• The govt should go one step further for triple linkage for efficient and leakage-less delivery of all kinds of benefits and voices to workers/citizens: One-Nation-One-Ration Card (ONOR), E-Shram Card (especially bank account seeded), and the Election Commission Card.
• Last but not least, registrations cannot be a source of exclusion of a person from receiving social assistance and benefits.

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