1 cr workers register on job portal; most from Bihar, Punjab

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 19

Punjab is among the top 10 states in the country leading the pace of registrations by migrant workers on the government portal which seeks to link unorganised labour with a range of benefits, including jobs.

The eShram portal today crossed one crore registrations with over half the registrations coming from workers of the agriculture sector, followed by 17.2 per cent of the construction sector.

Last mile delivery of social schemes

• The portal will create a database of workers in unorganised sector
• The workers will be able to avail benefits of social security and job schemes
• With nearly 5 lakh registrations, Punjab is among top 10 states

States from where more than three lakh migrant workers have registered are Bihar (which leads with 22,32,549), followed by Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab (4,99,898), Assam, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Maharashtra and Jharkhand witnessed registrations in the 1-3 lakh segment.

States with registrations ranging between 10,000 and 1 lakh are Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Telangana, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala and Meghalaya.

The registration would facilitate delivery and accessibility to crucial welfare programmes and various entitlements meant for the workers in the unorganised sector.

The drive was launched on August 26. In 24 days, 1,03,12,095 workers have registered on the portal, the data showed. Of them, around 43 per cent beneficiaries are female and 57 per cent male.

The portal will create a database of workers across construction, apparel manufacturing, fishing, gig and platform work, street vending, domestic work, agriculture and transport sectors.

As per the Economic Survey 2019-20, there are an estimated 38 crore workers in the unorganised sector, which would be targeted to register on this portal. These workers will then be able to avail benefits of social security and employment-based schemes.