One million gig workers registered on e-Shram portal: Mansukh Mandaviya

Nearly a million gig workers have been registered on the e-Shram portal so far, Union labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya told reporters on Tuesday.

 

“The registration of gig workers is an ongoing process, and we’re working in line with the Budget announcement. We are likely to register 3–4 million in the next three months,” the minister said.

 

Earlier in February, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget speech, had said that the Centre will provide identity cards to gig workers and register them on the e-Shram portal.

 

“They will also be provided healthcare under the PM Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY). This is likely to assist nearly 10 million gig workers,” Sitharaman had said.

 

Registration on the social security portal implies that the workers are now eligible to claim healthcare benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), and they will also get access to other social security schemes which are already mapped on the portal.

 

These social security schemes include the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan Yojana (PM-SYM), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), and Atal Pension Yojana (APY), among others.

 

Besides, the Union minister also informed reporters that the Centre has written to the states and Union Territories on the need to take urgent steps to safeguard workers from extreme heatwave conditions.

 

The measures to safeguard workers include rescheduling of working hours to avoid peak heat times, ensuring access to adequate drinking water, providing shaded rest areas and ventilation or cooling at worksites, making arrangements for regular health check-ups, and supplying emergency ice packs and heat illness prevention materials.