E-Shram Portal: Worrying Facts about Informal Sector in India

Eshram portal: Relevance

• GS 3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Eshram for informal workers: Context

• According to the latest data of e-shram portal, the income of informal workers shows sharp disparity in the Indian society.

ई-श्रम पोर्टल: भारत में अनौपचारिक क्षेत्र के बारे में चिंताजनक तथ्य

Eshram update: Key points

• More than 94 per cent of 27.69 crore informal sector workers registered on the e-Shram portal have a monthly income of Rs 10,000 or below.
  • While 4.36 per cent have a monthly income between Rs 10,001 and Rs 15,000.
• More than 74 per cent of the enrolled workforce belongs to scheduled castes (SC), scheduled tribes (SC) and other backward classes (OBC).
  • The proportion of the General Category workers is 25.56 per cent.
• Age-wise analysis of the data show that 61 per cent of the registered workers on the portal are of the age from 18 years to 40 years, while 22 per cent are of the age from 40 years to 50 years.
• Gender analysis shows that 52 per cent of registered workers are female and 47 per cent are male.
• Top-5 states in terms of registrations are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.
• Occupation wise, agriculture is at the top with 52 per cent of enrolments done by those related to the farm sector followed by domestic and household workers at 10 per cent and constructions workers at 9 per cent.

What is eShram Portal?

• It is a national portal will help build a comprehensive National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW) in the country.
• It will not only register the unorganised workers but would also be helpful in delivering of various social security schemes being implemented by the Central and State Governments.

Key features of e-Shram portal

• Registration under the e-SHRAM portal is totally free and workers do not have to pay anything for his or her registration at Common Service Centres (CSCs) or anywhere.
• The workers shall be issued an eSHRAM card with unique Universal Account Number (UAN) and will be able to access the benefits of the various social security schemes through this Card anywhere anytime.
• Registration, under the portal, has started from 26 August 2021.
• Authentication of database will be done through Aadhar (97% coverage).

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