India attempts to organize the unorganized sector

The government has launched a new database to capture the country’s 400 million informal workers

Photo by Sarthak Kwatra on Unsplash

The International Labour Organisation estimates that almost 90 percent of India’s labour force is in the informal economy. This is around 400 million unorganised workers. Although it was known before, the pandemic shed further light on the plight of these informal workers who are deprived of minimum wages and social welfare benefits. To solve this problem, the Indian government proposed a national database for unorganized workers in November 2020, but multiple delays and a pandemic that was unforgiving to the informal workers led the country’s highest court to interfere and order the government to have the database ready by July end.

“When the unorganized workers are waiting for registration and are waiting to reap the benefit of various welfare schemes of the States and Centre, the apathy and lackadaisical attitude by the Ministry of Labour and Employment is unpardonable.”- The Supreme Court

On August 26, the government finally launched the eShram portal — the National Database…