India's social security coverage rises to 64.3% from 19% in 10 years

India's social security coverage has increased to 64.3 per cent in 2025 from 19 per cent in 2015, according to the ILO data.

As per the International Labour Organization (ILO), India now ranks second in the world in terms of beneficiary count, providing social protection to around 940 million citizens.

"The increase marks the fastest expansion in social protection coverage worldwide, reflecting the government's unwavering commitment to 'Antyodaya' i.e., empowering the last mile and fulfilling the promise of leaving no one behind," said Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya who was in Geneva to attend the 113th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC) of the ILO.

According to an official statement, ILO has acknowledged India's achievement and officially published on its dashboard that 64.3 per cent of India's population, i.e. over 940 million people, are now covered under at least one social protection benefit.

It is an unprecedented 45 percentage point surge over the past decade, the global body has said.

India is also the first country globally to update its 2025 social protection coverage data in the ILOSTAT database.

DG ILO Gilbert F Houngbo has praised India's focused welfare policies for the poor and labour class under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, the Ministry of Labour & Employment statement said.

ILO's criteria for scheme consideration for each country include that the scheme should be legislatively backed, in cash and be active, and verified time series data of last three years has to be provided, the ministry said.

"It is important to note that the present figure reflects only Phase I of the data pooling exercise. This phase focused on beneficiary data of central sector schemes and women-centric schemes in selected 8 states," the ministry said.

It said that with the phase II and further consolidation underway, it is expected that India's total social protection coverage will soon surpass the 100-crore mark upon verification of additional schemes by the ILO.