Labour ministry to soon seek Cabinet nod for pension scheme for gig workers

The labour ministry will soon seek the Union Cabinet's approval for a pension scheme for one crore gig workers engaged with online platforms, where social security contribution will be made from their income for every transaction, said an official source. 

This assumes significance in view of the Budget announcement earlier this month by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman about rolling out of a social security scheme for one crore gig workers engaged with online platforms. 

Sithraman had said in her Budget speech that the government will provide them identity cards and facilitate their registration on the e-Shram portal. 

She had further said that these workers will be provided healthcare under the PM Jan Arogya Yojana. 

This measure is likely to assist nearly 1 crore gig workers, she had said. 

The move will help these platform workers get benefits of social welfare schemes run by various government agencies. 

The sources said the labour ministry is working on a mechanism to deduct social security contributions as a percentage by the online platforms like Ola, Uber on the income of these workers on every transaction just like the goods and services (GST) is collected. 

The source further revealed that the workers under the scheme can be provided two options at the time of retirement when his pension is fixed. 

Either he can withdraw interest on the deposits as pension or can divide the accumulated funds into equal installments for a stipulated period. 

However, the official said the proportion of the income transaction to be contributed for social security scheme has not been decided or fixed yet. 

Gig workers can work for two or more platforms simultaneously. 

The e-Shram portal was launched in August 2021 to register and support workers in unorganised sectors by providing them with a Universal Account Number (UAN) and create a comprehensive National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW). 

As of January 27, 2025, over 30.58 crore unorganised workers have already registered on the e-Shram portal. So far, 12 schemes of different central ministries or departments have been integrated/mapped with e-Shram. 

As per the Social Security Code 2020, a gig worker means a person who participates in a work arrangement and earns from such activities outside of traditional employer-employee relationship. 

These include people engaged with online platforms like Uber, Ola, Swiggy, Zomato, among others.   

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