e-Shram Portal : 5 Things to Know!

Aabir Bhattacharya and Shriyadita Srivastava

The Supreme Court in Re: Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers had directed the Central Government to develop the portal for registration under the National Database for Unorganised Workers (NDUW). In furtherance of the directions, the portal has been developed by the National Informatics Centre and is aimed at registering and collecting data of over 38 crore workers in the unorganized sector. The portal, now called the e-Shram portal has been launched on the 26^th of August 2021 and unorganised workers from all arenas, including construction workers, the migrant workforce, street vendors, and domestic workers among others can register themselves on the portal.

Here are five things to know about the e-Shram portal.

1. The objective behind the establishment of the portal is the integration of social security schemes of the government, while ensuring targeted and last mile delivery.
2. A worker can register using his/her Aadhaar card number and bank account details, apart from filling other necessary details like date of birth, home town, mobile number, and social category.
3. As part of the initiative, the workers will be issued an e-Shram card containing a 12-digit unique number.
4. A national toll free number — 14434 — will also be launched to assist and address the queries of workers seeking registration on the portal.
5. The registration of workers on the portal will be coordinated by the Labour Ministry, state governments, trade unions and CSCs.

The Supreme Court had directed that the registration of all unorganized workers needs to be completed at the earliest, and no later than the 31^st of December 2021. In this regard, the Central and State Governments are to work together to ensure prompt and proper registration of all workers in the unorganized sector. Awareness campaigns have been planned across the country to enable nationwide registration of workers. With proper execution, the initiative could go a long way in facilitating the benefits social security schemes for the unorganized workers of the nation.

CLL