By Adrija Bose
New Delhi — Pujari Suresh was a 30-year-old Hyderabad-based gig worker. He was the primary bread-winner for a family of six, comprising his wife, two school-going children, one parent, and a younger brother. One fatal day, Suresh was driving his taxi back home when he met with an accident. He breathed his last on November 23, 2021.
Suresh’s family was shattered emotionally and financially. However, they found a ray of hope when they discovered that Suresh was enrolled on the e-shram portal, which was launched by the central government under the Ministry of Labour & Employment in August, 2021 for workers aged 16-59 years. The portal aimed to create the first-ever national database for unorganised workers - including gig workers - and provide access to welfare schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, amongst others.
For instance, under the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan Yojana (for old age individuals), beneficiaries who turn 60 while working are entitled to a monthly pension of Rs 3,000. In case of death, the beneficiary’s spouse is eligible for 50% of the monthly pension. Under the listed schemes, beneficiaries’ families are supposed to get Rs 2 lakh on death due to any cause.
Suresh’s family believed that they could receive some financial assistance from the government. Almost three years on, there is hardly any breakthrough. “My brother-in-law and I have been persistently knocking on the doors of state government departments. We have dialled the customer support numbers, written emails several times but to no avail,” Pujari Sravani, the 20-year-old widow of Suresh, told Decode.
Sravani is clueless as to what the hurdles are. She said, “I never get a clear response from the state government departments.”
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Suresh’s death did not go unnoticed by the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union. Shaik Salauddin, the union’s state president, said, “We encouraged all gig workers in our immediate circle - including Suresh - to register on the e-shram portal. However, when there is any adversity, there is only so much we can do. The family has to take initiative and complete the necessary process to get the benefits.”
Salauddin added that he assisted Suresh’s wife with the required documents such as the e-shram card (which contains a Universal Account Number used to access schemes), Aadhaar card, and death certificate to avail benefits at the earliest. “Even with all the documents, there is no clear progress. The state departments themselves are clueless about the execution and delivery of e-shram benefits to the gig workers. They simply say that it is a central government scheme,” Salauddin said.
The struggle of Suresh’s family sheds light on the inefficient execution of e-shram benefits. Additionally, there are uncountable gig workers who are not even aware of the portal’s existence.
Satya, a 24-year-old cab driver, hails from Etawah, Uttar Pradesh. He has been driving cabs for over a year in the National Capital Region. “Sorry, what portal?” he said when Decode asked him if he had registered. He was curious to know what it meant for gig workers like him but had no information.
Satya raised some important questions. “I have car insurance from my bank. The insurance will also cover accidental death and disability. How is the portal different?”
Notably, the registration on the e-shram portal is completely voluntary and the onus is on the workers to initiate the process. Decode wrote an email to the cab-hailing platform Uber asking whether the platform has taken any steps to make the process easy for cab drivers who they have onboarded.
“In the past, we had partnered with Haqdarshak to help drivers get enrolled into the e-shram portal. We’ve also educated drivers on ways to register on the portal through in-app communication and facilitated camps with some state governments to drive awareness,” Uber responded to Decode.
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However, many Uber and other platform cab drivers like Satya are still not familiar with the portal.
Shalaka Chauhan, an independent labour researcher, says several workers in the unorganised sector do not know how the e-shram portal and its benefits are unique. “Similar to Satya, workers [in the unorganised sector] wonder if they already have a labour card which provides them some benefits, what other benefits does an e-shram card provide,” Chauhan explained.
Ideally, workers can register themselves on the e-shram portal free-of-cost at labour facilitation centres, common services centres, state seva kendras, or via self-registration. However, Chauhan said that these workers earn wages on a per-day basis and they need to be fully aware of the portal’s distinctive benefits so as to make time for the registration processes, more so, when their documents are either incomplete or do not meet the criteria of the portal’s registration requirements. The portal listed the issuance of 290 million e-shram cards, as of June 17, 2024.
Similar to Satya, Vikas Singh is also one of the gig workers unaware of e-shram. Vikas worked with the Urban Company, an app-based home services platform, for over a year. Even though Vikas said that the company cared about gig workers whenever they met with an unfortunate incident while working, he doesn’t know about the benefits/schemes he was entitled to - either from the company’s end or from the government’s end.
The e-shram portal was built with an estimated cost of Rs 704 crore. In an effort to recognise unorganised workers across the board, the categories of occupations were also increased from 120 to 400. However, the portal has not been put to use to the fullest.
On June 4, 2024, the Ministry of Labour & Employment showcased the e-Shram portal as a comprehensive "One-Stop-Solution" for India's unorganized workers ato provide access to various social security programmes at the 112th International Labour Conference (ILC) held in Geneva.
In 2022, addressing the National Conference of Labour Ministers of all States and Union Territories, PM Modi highlighted the e-Shram portal as a key initiative to include the labour force in social security. He noted that 28 crore workers registered in one year, benefiting construction workers, migrant labourers, and domestic workers.
However, in reality, a lot of gig workers are still unaware of the existence of the portal.
“There is an absence of awareness and outreach, lengthy registration process, poor knowledge of the portal's distinctive benefits, and absolutely no know-how of the process of availing the portal’s benefits,” Salauddin said.
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Decode sent emails to the labour ministry, Ola, and Urban Company for responses to the story. They have not responded at the time of publishing the story. The story will be updated if we receive a response.
