40 crore workers and their need for social security and labour rights

India has for decades lacked a formal understanding of workers in its unorganized sector. The pool of workers such as masons, domestic help, unskilled workers, and agricultural labor range between 38-41 crore and comprise 92% of India’s total workforce. Given their ‘anonymity’, they could never fully participate in government welfare schemes or demand labour rights.

Many attempts have been made by previous governments to create a database of all unorganized workers, but each attempt failed. A day before the announcement of the nationwide lockdown for Covid-19, the BJP-led NDA government admitted in the Parliament that it has no record of migrants, unskilled and agricultural laborers in the country. The impact of this lack of “information” was truly felt when the government could not identify and assist migrants trapped in cities or provide aid to the kins of those who succumbed to death while traveling to their villages on foot and trains. Rough estimates suggest that at least 971 workers died during this period. The pandemic came to become the much-needed catalyst as the Supreme Court, in response to a petition on the migrant workers crisis, ordered the government to set up a national database of the country’s unorganized workforce.

Launch of eSHRAM

The BJP-led government launched the eSHRAM portal on August 26, 2021, with the mandate of registering all the unorganized workers in the country. For the purpose of registration, any person between the age of 16-59 years who is a home-based worker, self-employed worker, or a wage worker working in the unorganized sector and not a member of ESIC or EPFO, is called an unorganized worker.

The portal aimed to bridge the gap in unorganized workers’ ability to access social welfare and employment benefits by issuing an eShram card (or Shramik card) with a unique 12-digit number upon registration. The key pre-requisites for registering on eSHRAM include having an Aadhar card, a bank account, and a mobile number linked to Aadhar. When seeded with the Aadhar system, the database would include details such as the worker’s name, occupation, address, educational qualification, skill types, and family details to be used for passing on appropriate welfare benefits.

In the 6 months between Aug 26, 2021, and Feb 25, 2022, a total of 26.1 crore unorganized workers have been registered in the eSHRAM portal. 62% are between 18-40 years old, while 22% are between 40-50 years. 51.5% are associated with the Agricultural sector, 10.2% are classified as domestic and household workers, while 9.3% are classified as construction workers.

How successful has the attempt been?

In order to pass on the benefits to the workers, the government linked multiple welfare schemes to the eSHRAM database. Let’s evaluate the progress of each of these schemes to assess whether or not the intended purpose of eSHRAM is being achieved.

PM Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana (PMSYMY)

A government scheme meant for old age protection and social security of unorganized workers between 18-40 years with monthly income below Rs. 15,000. The voluntary scheme launched in Mar 2019, provides an assured monthly pension of Rs. 3000 upon reaching 60 years for a voluntary contribution of between Rs 55-200 per month.

As of Feb 2022, only 4.6 crore (30%) of the 15.2 crore workers between 18-40 years registered in eSHRAM have been enrolled in the PMSYMY scheme. When compared with the total number of estimated unorganized workers in the 18-40 years age bracket (25 crore), only 18% of unorganized workers have assured pension in their old age.

PM Suraksha Bima Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana is an Accidental Insurance scheme eligible to the people between 18-70 years of age. It provides benefit of Rs. 2 Lacs at the time of accidental death and permanent disability & Rs. 1 Lac in case of partial disability.

The registered workers under eSHRAM portal, will be enrolled under PMSBY and the premium for the first year will be borne by the government. The beneficiary who wishes to continue beyond the first year will provide their consent to continue the scheme and allow auto-debit of his/her account for every successive year.

As of Jul 2021 (pre eSHRAM launch), 23.4 crore (67%) of the estimated 34.8 crore unorganized workers in the 18-70 years age group were enrolled in the scheme. However, there is no data available for how many of the workers have volunteered to have their policies continued beyond the second year for a premium of Rs. 12 per annum.

PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana

A life insurance scheme, renewable every year, that offers coverage for death due to any reason and is available to people in the age group of 18-50 years (life cover up to 55 years). Anyone having a savings bank account and who give their consent to join and enable auto-debit is eligible under the scheme. The voluntary scheme launched in May 2015, aims to increase penetration of life insurance among citizens.

As of Mar 2021 (pre eSHRAM launch), only 10.3 crore (32%) of the estimated 32.3 crore unorganized workers in the 18-50 years age group were enrolled in the scheme. However, there is no data available for how many of the workers have volunteered to have their policies continued beyond the second year for a premium of Rs. 330 per annum.

Issues and Challenges with eSHRAM

Dependency on Aadhar, mobile, and a Bank account:

Self-enrolments in eSHRAM require an Aadhar card which is also linked to the mobile number. According to the 2019 State Of Aadhaar report, a national study capturing the experiences of over 167,000 households across India, only 39% of respondents had the correct mobile phone number linked to their Aadhaar. 8% of respondents did not have an Aadhaar card which means 10.2 crore people are left out.

As per the data from the National Family Health Survey, 2019-21, 30.6% of women in urban India and 53.4% in rural India did not have a phone of their own

19% of women in urban India and 22.6% in rural India did not own a bank account that they operated themselves. Some of these women did have a post office savings account though but that is not accepted for registration in eSHRAM.

Given that most workers are illiterate and not tech-savvy to self-register with an OTP, they become dependent on unofficial middlemen or agents to help them register or facilitate their registration through the Common Service Centers (CSCs).

Voluntary nature of welfare schemes:

Though a registration into eSHRAM automatically enroll the person into welfare schemes such as PM Suraksha Bima Yojana and PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana with the government paying the premium for the first year, continuation beyond the second year is voluntary and many people may choose not to continue either due to lack of finances or lack of awareness.

Misuse of data:

Without data protection laws, the safeguards to prevent misuse of eSHRAM data do not exist. This also leads to the “politicization” of the database for electoral gains. As a case in point, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath transferred Rs 1,000 as a ‘maintenance allowance’ into the bank accounts of 15 million workers who had registered on the eSHRAM portal. This was done just before the model code of conduct was enforced in January 2022.

Labour protection vs social security

eSHRAM attempts to only provide social security to the unorganized workers but what they require even more is the protection of labour laws to protect their rights. Consider this - the maternity benefit offered under the Maternity Benefit Act is 26 weeks of paid leave to be provided by the employer whereas the maternity benefits under various social security schemes are usually monetary assistance of about Rs 5,000 which is not comparable to 26 weeks of paid leave. Employers enjoy the benefits accruing from labour productivity and should thus be held accountable to labour laws. eSHRAM does not place any responsibility on the employer.

Conclusion

While eSHRAM is a good attempt to provide social security cover, it has taken an extremely short-sighted view of enhancing the lives and livelihoods of the 40 crore unorganized workers.  Social security should not be voluntary but mandatory as done in many countries through legal statutes. The scheme has also overlooked workers’ labour rights and missed an opportunity to formalize employer-employee relations thereby leaving over 90% of the country’s workforce to operate in an informal economy.