NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Labour and Employment plans has fixed a deadline of June-end to provide health coverage to all the gig and platform workers in the country, said Labour Ministry sources. Over 1 crore workers are presently employed in these fields which cover delivery, ridesharing, logistics and other professional services.
A source said, “The Labour Ministry has written to aggregators of all services across the country including major ones like Swiggy, Zomato, Uber, Ola and Rapido, asking them to onboard their workers on to the Ministry’s e-shram portal at the earliest.
Workers are also encouraged to register on the portal. We have fixed a deadline of June-end to ensure all of them are covered under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).”
Recognising the contribution of the workers to the country’s economy, the 2025-2026 budget announced coverage for them under AP-PMJAY. The AB-PMJAY health scheme provides a cover of Rs 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization across over 31,000 public and private empanelled hospitals in India.
A recent report by NITI Aayog has projected that the gig economy in India will employ nearly 2.35 crore by 2029-30.
A parliamentary standing committee report on Labour tabled in the Lok Sabha by MP Basavaraj Bommai in March had stated that of the nearly 35 lakh platform workers eligible for registration on the e-shram portal which offer them health, social security and numerous other benefits, only 70,306, have registered upto February.
CITU General Secretary Tapan Sen told this newspaper, “The condition of such workers is completely pathetic and they are fully exploited by their employers. They spend for their bikes, its maintenance, its fuel and other expenses related to their work and the employees take upto 40% of their earnings. Without any investment in the infrastructure, the employer gets a huge income.”
Labour ministry sources also said they were also working on providing social security benefits like pensions and accidental insurance for these gig workers. “Work on it has just begun and this would help them enormously.”
GIG WORKERS
Gig and platform workers in the country: 1 crore-plus workers
Niti Aayog projected growth by 2029-2030: Nearly 2.35 crore workers
Govt has asked all major aggregators to register their employees on e-shram portal
Ministry working on providing pensions and other social security benefits to gig workers
June-end deadline to provide health insurance coverage to all