More than 90% of Indian workers are informal — vendors, farm and construction labour, gig workers — long invisible to any welfare system. The e-Shram portal (2021) built the first national registry of unorganised workers.
Labour & Social Security
Labour & Social Security
Over 90% of India's workforce is in the informal sector — street vendors, construction workers, gig workers — historically outside any social-security net. The e-Shram portal (2021) built the first national database of unorganised workers, registering over 30 crore of them (about 54% women) and linking them toward welfare schemes. New labour codes aim to simplify 29 old laws into four. The counter shows e-Shram registrations.
30.7 cr
e-Shram registrations
~54%
Women among registered
4
New labour codes
e-Shram registrations
| Year | e-Shram registrations |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 12 crore |
| 2022 | 28 crore |
| 2023 | 30 crore |
| 2024 | 31 crore |
| 2025 | 31 crore |
2021
0crore
e-Shram registrations
20212025
Since 2021
Added
+19 crore
2021
12 crore
2025
31 crore
Why it matters A registry of informal workers is the first step to giving them insurance, pensions and portable benefits — extending the safety net to those who need it most.
- e-Shram: 0 → 30.7 crore workers registered (2021→2024)
- ~54% women; 4 new labour codes consolidate 29 laws
- Source: Ministry of Labour & Employment
History
Building a safety net
Over 30.7 crore workers (about 54% women) have registered, a step toward insurance, pensions and portable benefits. Four new labour codes aim to consolidate 29 tangled old laws and extend social security, including to gig and platform workers.
How it works
India is consolidating 29 tangled old labour laws into four simplified Labour Codes (on wages, industrial relations, social security, and safety), meant to make hiring simpler while extending protections. The centrepiece for informal workers is the e-Shram portal — a national database that gives each unorganised worker a Universal Account Number, linking them to pensions, insurance and welfare schemes in one place.
Outlook
Over 31 crore unorganised workers — more than half of them women — are now registered on e-Shram, and for the first time the Social Security Code explicitly covers gig and platform workers. Registration is the start — the harder next step is actually delivering benefits (pension, insurance, accident cover) to those workers, rolling out the four codes across states, and formalising a workforce where the vast majority still lack any safety net.
The road ahead
Registration is the start — the harder next step is actually delivering benefits to hundreds of millions of informal workers and smoothly rolling out the new labour codes.
By the numbers
e-Shram 0 → 30.7 crore workers; ~54% women; 4 new labour codes consolidating 29 laws. Source: Ministry of Labour & Employment.
Source: Ministry of Labour — e-Shram unorganised-worker registrations (crore), 2021–2025.