Over 1.71 crore unorganised workers have registered themselves in the e-Shram portal in the first month of an exercise to prepare a national database of workers, including migrant workers, construction workers, gig and platform workers, with Odisha and Bihar topping the list.
Of the total registrations, 45.64 per cent are women in the first-ever national database that is being prepared to enable the government to extend benefits of social sector schemes to the workers in the unorganised sector.
Among the states, Odisha has the highest registration of 37.11 lakh followed by Bihar (34.86 lakh), West Bengal (22.87 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (22.31 lakh) and Madhya Pradesh (10.12 lakh). These five states together account for 74.17 per cent of the registration.
Among the southern states, Karnataka has the highest number of registrations at 4.59 lakh followed by Andhra Pradesh (3.91 lakh) and Tamil Nadu (1.49 lakh). Telangana has 51,435 registrations while Kerala has the least among these states at 43,626.
An occupation-wise registration showed that agriculture-related workers topped the list with 91.21 lakh followed by construction workers 27.17 lakh, domestic and household workers 11.51 lakh, apparel workers at 9.96 lakh and automobile and transportation workers at 5.43 lakh.
Official data showed that five singers/musicians/band players, 2,817 musical instrument makers, 8,672 shop sales assistants and 24,413 security guards and supervisors were among those registered.
Also on the list were 2,238 debt collectors and 633 pawnbrokers and money lenders as well as 60,387 barbers, 45,490 beauticians and 6,522 masseurs. Religious professionals numbering 11,392 have also registered themselves in the e-Shram portal.
An analysis of the data showed that there has been a consistent increase in the weekly registrations — from 13.55 lakh in the first week to 69.53 lakh in the fourth week. The registration has picked up pace in the third week when 68.97 lakh unorganised workers registered in the portal as against 19.52 lakh in the second week.
Age-wise, 47.1 per cent or 80.81 lakh are in the age group of 25-40 years while 22.09 per cent or 37.9 lakh are in the 40-50 year bracket. Among 16-25 years, there are 17.86 per cent or 30.64 lakh registrations and 12.96 per cent or 22.23 lakh are above 50 years of age.
"Registration is necessary so that we know how many workers are there in each trade. More than 400 trades have already been represented on the portal. We want everyone to register so that every worker including those who perform very small work is able to avail the benefits of government schemes. Moreover, those who register on the portal now are eligible to get insurance up to Rs 2 lakh," Union Labour and Employment Minister Bhupendra Yadav said.
The portal is seeded with Aadhaar and will have details of name, occupation, address, educational qualification, skill types and family details among others of the registered workers. This will thus enable optimum realisation of their employability and enable them to avail benefits of government schemes, the Ministry of Labour and Employment has said.
Any worker who is working in the unorganised sector and aged between 16-59, is eligible to register on the portal. Migrant workers, gig workers, platform workers, agricultural workers, MGNREGA workers, fishermen, milkmen, ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, street vendors, domestic workers, rickshaw pullers and other workers engaged in similar other occupations in the unorganised sector are all eligible, it added.
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