Increasing Women on the e-Shram Portal

eShram portal UPSC: Relevance

• GS 2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

eShram portal: Context

• Since the launch of e-shram portal, more female has been registering on the portal than the male unorganized workers.

eShram portal: Key points

• According to the data of Ministry of Labour and Employment, as of March 2022, more than 270 million workers have registered, out of which nearly 53 percent are female and 47 percent are male.
• Women registration is higher in each of the top five states on the e-Shram dashboard: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha.
• Moreover, Tamil Nadu (61.88), Meghalaya (66.04), and Kerala (59.58) have the highest registrations of female workers.
• In the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, agriculture has the highest registrations, followed by domestic and household workers, construction, and the apparel sector.
• E-shram portal also tells us that nearly 62 percent of workers are in the age group of 18–40, almost 250 million of the 270 million who have registered so far earn INR10,000 per month and below.

Women workforce in India

• According to a report by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) published in 2018, women constitute 42 percent of the agricultural labour force of the country, with increasing feminisation of agriculture, and yet they own less than 2 percent of farm land.
• Similarly, women constitute75% of domestic workers in India.
• These women have no legal protection as workers under labour laws and are dependent on their employers.
• The e-shram portal recognises the categories like domestic workers and gives them an identity.

Reasons for increase in registration

• In India, 94% of women workers are part of the informal sector of the economy.
• Registrations have been largely driven by common service centres (CSC).
• Increase in women registration contradicts the fact that there is a sharp digital divide between men and women, due to the wide penetration of the CSCs.
• One of the reasons of increase in registration could be intervention by grassroots organisations that work closely with women’s groups in both rural and urban areas.
• Also, it is easier to mobilise women through institutions and collectives than men, many of whom work as migrants in cities.

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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