Plans To Formulate A Social Security Scheme For Gig And Platform Workers: Labour Secy

The Ministry of Labour and Employment is contemplating a social security scheme for the gig workers and platform workers, said Sumita Dawra, Union Labour Secretary at the CII Global Economic Policy Forum on December 11, 2024. According to her statement, "We are putting together the scheme for the gig and platform economy workers because there is no traditional employer-employee relationship defined for the gig and platform workers but we need to bring social security coverage for them so that they can be more productive and support the country's economy and the e-commerce and services sector more effectively," reported PTI.

The gig economy is expected to more than triple in the next 5-6 years. According to Niti Ayog’s India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy report in 2022, 7.7 million (77 lakh) workers were engaged in the gig economy in 2020-21, which is expected to increase to 23.5 million (2.35 crore) by 2029-30. 

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The job market is uncertain for gig workers and there is no social security in terms of employers and employees. The nature of the job is not permanent. The report mentions that around 47 per cent of the gig workers were engaged in medium-skilled jobs and 22 per cent and 31 per cent in high and low-skilled jobs, respectively. Also, the trend projections indicate a decline in medium-skilled jobs and growth in high and low-skilled jobs in the future. 

In her address, Dawra also mentioned that there are around one crore workers in the gig and platform economy and this number is continually increasing.

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AI has been a major cause of concern in the job market and people have diverse opinions on its impact. Will it take away jobs or the nature of jobs will change or can both go hand in hand? This is a larger question and needs more contemplation. But as far as social security is concerned, Dawra said, “Our sense is that AI is something which probably should be adding to jobs as we see in the auto sector for example we do have robots which have been brought in but then the same labour force has been redeployed to an area where training to use those robots or to maintain that machinery is happening."

As per the Reserve Bank of India’s provisional estimates, there are around 643 million people (64.3 crore) in India's workforce. However, measures are being taken to bring them under the formal pension and provident fund coverage. 

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In October this year, union minister Mansukh Mandaviya talked about contemplating a scheme for these workers. He said that the ministry is exploring all options and taking suggestions from stakeholders and a committee was also formed to deliberate on this and create a framework. At that time, a framework to provide social security to these workers was expected to be announced before the Budget in February 2025.