The e-shram portal of the Ministry of Labor and Employment, which is meant to register workers in the unorganized sector and help them access social security benefits, is being linked with the One Nation One Ration Card scheme. According to Labor and Employment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, “We are in the process of integration of e-shram with One Nation One Ration Card based on location data of monthly food grains collection from PDS shops. It is envisaged that comparison of location data with permanent address data on e-Shram will help in identifying migrant workers within E-Shram.”
He was speaking at IE THINC Migration webinar on migrant workers and the promise of e-shram. The webinar organized is part of a series on migration. So far it has had seven editions. “The main issue is to ensure that the location of the workers is not a hindrance in accessing social security benefits… e-Shram will share all relevant data with the state governments in a dynamic manner,” he said.
In a panel discussion after Yadav’s address, Divya Verma Program Manager, Center for Migration and Labor Solutions, Aajeevika Bureau, said that it is not really clear how the e-shram experiment will differ from its earlier ones.
He said, “Unorganized Workers Social Security Board was started in 2008 and Unorganized Workers Identification Number was introduced in 2015. And, all these schemes and cards and platforms have the same thing…informal and migrant workers count demand. But in reality nothing in the name of social security for the workers came from such a campaign.”
“The biggest employer of migrant workers is the private sector, and their participation will go a long way,” said Sanjay Awasthi, head of the India-based office of the International Organization for Migration.
Asif Sheikh, Founder and CEO, Jan Sahas said, “The e-shram system tries to create a social registry of workers in the unorganized sector. Registration is the first step, after that how to mitigate the weakness through security is very important. The role of the industry is important and their participation needs to be increased.”
Journalist and IndiaSpend founder Govindraj Ethiraj also spoke of the possibility of linking electoral databases with e-shram to ensure electoral representation. He said, “Why not even start voting? From a technology point of view, there is nothing that stops us.”