India’s first-ever national database of unorganised workers, e-Shram, was launched on August 26, 2021, with the intention of capturing details of the unorganised or informal work sector in India. The creation of this database was vital, especially given the crisis that migrant workers faced during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns. As of October 8, a total of three crore informal sector workers have registered on the platform, and the data analysed by the Labour Bureau so far shows that women form a large chunk of this sector.
The data analysis found that of the three crore registered workers, 48.84 per cent are women, while 51.16 per cent are men. Of the total registrations, 2.77 per cent are migrant workers, indicating that even though this portal was primarily formed to study patterns of life among migrant workers, the target group is currently not aware of or has access to the platform.
An even more worrying finding was that around 55 per cent of these registered workers on e-Shram don’t have bank accounts linked to Aadhar cards, which can make their movement to the formal sector even more difficult. Accessing welfare schemes like free ration and transfer of cash would also be next to impossible without Aadhar-linked bank accounts, making this a key stress area for the e-Shram portal and the government to overcome.
The Labour Bureau analysis also showed that while there are an estimated 38 crore workers in the Indian informal sector, 1.67 crores of those who registered on e-Shram are agricultural sector workers, 42 lakh are construction workers, and 22 lakh are domestic and household workers. The top five states from where informal sector workers have registered are Odisha (73 lakh), West Bengal (54 lakh), Bihar (50 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (44 lakh), and Madhya Pradesh (12.9 lakh). This pattern also highlights the necessity of increasing campaigns and registrations in western, northeastern and southern Indian states.