Labour Ministry mulls scheme for gig, platform workers

The Ministry of Labour and Employment is working on a scheme to provide various benefits like social security to gig and platform workers in the country, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Addressing the CII Global Economic Policy Forum, Union Labour Secretary Sumita Dawra said the labour code on social security has outlined social security benefits for them.

“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,” she said.

In October, Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that a policy for providing social security benefits like pension and health services to gig and platform workers is under process.

He had also said that Niti Aayog has estimated 65 lakh gig and platform workers in the country, but the number is likely to be over 2 crore as this segment is growing very fast.

Dawra also stated that by 2030, the ministry expects more than 3 crore workers in the gig and platform economy.

She also acknowledged that the ministry is aware that almost a crore workers are there in the gig and platform economy and it is going to grow further. For the first time, the definition of ‘gig workers’ and ‘platform workers’ has been provided in the Code on Social Security 2020.

As per an estimation by NITI Aayog, the number of gig workers and platform workers in the country was 7.7 million in 2020-21, which is expected to rise to 23.5 million by 2029-30.