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The e-Shram portal, run by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, completes five years on 26 August 2026; it was launched on 26 August 2021 and built India's first Aadhaar-authenticated National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW).
Every registered worker receives a unique 12-digit Universal Account Number (UAN). Registrations stood at 31.89 crore as on 18 August 2026, with women forming 54.28 per cent of registrants and men 45.72 per cent.
The e-Shram One-Stop Solution, launched on 21 October 2024, converted the registry into a service-delivery platform that now carries 15 social security and welfare schemes, including PM-SYM, PMSBY, PMJJBY, NSAP, ONORC and PMAY-Gramin.
Roughly 11.5 lakh gig and platform workers have registered, giving the government its first national roster of this workforce; multilingual access in 22 languages, powered by Bhashini, was added in 2025.
Registration is free, one-time and open to any unorganised worker aged 16 and above who is not an income-tax payer and not a member of EPFO or ESIC.
Register every unorganised worker in an Aadhaar-authenticated national database, issue a 12-digit UAN, and make social security benefits portable across states.
Key: Launched 26 August 2021 by the Ministry of Labour and Employment; developed by NIC; free, one-time registration for workers aged 16 and above who are outside EPFO/ESIC and below the income-tax threshold.
Turn the worker registry into a single window through which registrants can see the schemes they are eligible for, the benefits already received, and enrol directly.
Key: Launched 21 October 2024; integrates 15 social security and welfare schemes and connects to National Career Service, Skill India Digital Hub and myScheme.
Provide a minimum assured pension of Rs 3,000 per month to unorganised workers on attaining 60 years of age.
Key: Central Sector voluntary contributory pension scheme launched in 2019 by the Ministry of Labour and Employment; entry age 18-40 years, monthly income up to Rs 15,000, applicant must not be in EPFO/ESIC/government-funded NPS and not an income-tax payer; 50:50 funding with the subscriber paying an age-linked Rs 55 to Rs 200 a month and the Centre matching it; LIC is the pension fund manager; on the pensioner's death the spouse receives 50 per cent as family pension.
Accident insurance cover for the low-income population, enrollable directly through e-Shram.
Key: Rs 2 lakh for accidental death or permanent disability and Rs 1 lakh for partial disability.
Life insurance cover for the low-income population, enrollable directly through e-Shram.
Key: Rs 2 lakh cover in the event of death due to any cause.
Make food-grain entitlements portable so a migrant worker can draw rations from any fair price shop in the country.
Key: Rolled out in pilot form from August 2019 under the National Food Security Act, 2013; now operational across all 36 States and Union Territories; one of the 15 schemes on the e-Shram One-Stop Solution.
Connect job seekers, employers, counsellors and career centres on one platform, replacing the older employment-exchange system.
Key: Launched on 20 July 2015 by the Ministry of Labour and Employment; e-Shram registrants are routed to it for employment opportunities.
Give e-Shram registrants access to skilling and apprenticeship opportunities (Skill India Digital Hub) and to a scheme-eligibility finder across governments (myScheme).
Key: Linked from the e-Shram One-Stop Solution rather than requiring separate discovery by the worker.
Social assistance pensions for the aged, widows and persons with disabilities (NSAP) and rural housing (PMAY-G).
Key: Both are among the 15 schemes carried on the e-Shram One-Stop Solution.
Nodal ministry for e-Shram, PM-SYM and the National Career Service; administers labour legislation and the social security architecture for unorganised workers.
Built the e-Shram portal; the Government of India's principal provider of digital infrastructure and e-governance platforms to central and state departments.
Recommends social security schemes for unorganised workers to the Central Government — life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, old age protection — and advises on administration of the law.
Cover the organised workforce; membership of either disqualifies a worker from registering on e-Shram, which is precisely how the portal draws the line between organised and unorganised employment.
The largest single channel for e-Shram registration, ahead of self-registration; village-level digital access points delivering government services.
Received the President's assent on 30 December 2008. It provided for the constitution of the National Social Security Board and defined the unorganised worker categories — home-based, self-employed and wage workers — that e-Shram still uses. The Board was set up on 18 August 2009, has a three-year term and must meet at least three times a year.
Subsumes the 2008 Act. Section 113 requires every unorganised worker, gig worker and platform worker to register, with Aadhaar-linked documentation — the statutory hook for the e-Shram registry. Section 114 extends social security to gig and platform workers for the first time in Indian law and provides for aggregator contributions to a Social Security Fund. The four labour codes came into effect on 21 November 2025.
Creates the State BOCW Welfare Boards. e-Shram shares construction workers' data with States and Union Territories so that these workers can be registered with the respective BOCW Boards — a direct case of the database being used to route workers into an existing statutory entitlement.
The parent law for One Nation One Ration Card, one of the 15 schemes on the e-Shram One-Stop Solution; it is what makes a migrant worker's food entitlement portable across states.
An unorganised worker is a home-based worker, a self-employed worker, or a wage worker in the unorganised sector. Crucially, the definition also pulls in a worker employed in the organised sector who is not a member of ESIC or EPFO and is not a government employee. So the test is not what industry a person works in but whether they are inside the formal social-security net. This is why e-Shram's eligibility rule reads the way it does: age 16 or above, not an income-tax payer, and not an EPFO or ESIC member. A security guard employed by a large firm but kept off its provident fund rolls is an unorganised worker for this purpose.
Simple Analogy: Think of EPFO and ESIC as a fenced field with the formal workforce inside it. e-Shram is not a second fence — it is a headcount of everyone standing outside, so that welfare can finally be delivered to them by name rather than by guesswork.
| Aspect | PM-SYM | PMSBY | PMJJBY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type of cover | Old-age pension | Accident insurance | Life insurance |
| Benefit | Rs 3,000 per month from age 60 | Rs 2 lakh for accidental death or permanent disability; Rs 1 lakh for partial disability | Rs 2 lakh on death due to any cause |
| Funding | 50:50 — subscriber pays Rs 55 to Rs 200 a month by entry age, Centre matches it | Premium-based cover | Premium-based cover |
| Entry age | 18 to 40 years | Not specified in the release | Not specified in the release |
| Fund manager / route | LIC is the pension fund manager | Enrollable through the e-Shram portal | Enrollable through the e-Shram portal |
e-Shram's roughly 11.5 lakh registered platform workers are the first national enumeration of this workforce. Section 114 of the Code makes aggregators contribute to a Social Security Fund for them, but the contribution can only be spent on workers the state can identify — which is what the registry supplies.
e-Shram is Aadhaar-authenticated by design. It extends the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile delivery model from cash transfers to the identification layer itself: the UAN is a welfare identity, not a payment instrument.
Portability is the portal's stated objective, and it captures family details of migrant workers. Read this alongside ONORC — together they are the two halves of making entitlements travel with the worker rather than sit with the address.
The 22-language interface added in 2025 runs on Bhashini, MeitY's National Language Translation Mission platform formed in July 2022 — an example of one digital public infrastructure layer being consumed by another.
The One-Stop Solution was aligned with the Budget's stated vision of delivering a wide range of labour services through a single digital platform — a useful instance of a budget announcement traceable to a concrete portal change.
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections; GS Paper 3 > Indian Economy > Employment
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Portals
General Awareness > Financial Inclusion and Social Security Schemes
General Awareness > Current Affairs and Schemes
Very high — welfare portals and social security schemes are among the most repeatedly asked areas across UPSC Prelims, SSC and banking general awareness.
National Database of Unorganised Workers — the Aadhaar-authenticated register created by e-Shram, India's first of its kind.
The unique 12-digit number issued to every e-Shram registrant, serving as a portable welfare identity.
A home-based, self-employed or wage worker in the unorganised sector, plus any organised-sector worker outside EPFO/ESIC who is not a government employee.
The digital intermediary defined in the Code on Social Security, 2020, required to contribute to a Social Security Fund for gig and platform workers.
Village-level digital service delivery point; the single largest channel for e-Shram registrations.