Centre Working With States To Link Migrant Workers' Database On e-Shram Platform To Job-Match Portal

The central government is coordinating with the states to converge the social security schemes for informal sector workers registered on the e-Shram portal and at the same time match them with proper employment opportunities.

So far, around 8.43 crore workers from the informal sector have signed up on the aforementioned portal.

This database of workers will be subsequently linked with the proposed labour-matching platform ‘Unnati’ for blue-collar and grey-collar jobs.

“Initially, the registration process on the e-Shram portal included a question about whether a worker is a migrant worker, but the question was subsequently done away with,” a senior official in the know of developments was quoted in a report by the Indian Express.

The officer added, “When the registration process reaches its final stage, data will be analysed to mark the difference between home address and work address. If the work address is outside the hometown — that will determine the category of migrant workers.”

Both employers as well as the workers will have access to the Unnati portal.

Around 400 occupational categories have been added to the portal, which will allow the employers to hire the workers specifically for certain sort of projects.

“Say, for example, a municipality wants to engage masons or any other workers, they can use the database to identify and hire such workers for local projects,” the official said.

Moreover, there are growing discussions within the government to bring about universalisation of social security schemes whilst also developing initiatives tailor-made for organised and unorganised workers along with those who move between these two categories.

“Discussions are being held with states for better convergence of schemes at the state and Central levels. There is going to be a proper database of Aadhaar-seeded identification of workers, which will help in better streamlining of benefits. This may be a slow process but will be a positive process,” another senior Labour Ministry official said.