Data Point: Majority of India’s Gig Workers Remain Out of Government’s Reach

Context

• • India’s gig economy is expanding rapidly, but the government’s social-security architecture is struggling to keep pace. The biggest issue is the gap between the estimated gig workforce and workers actually registered on the e-Shram portal. This creates a classic “coverage vs welfare” problem: schemes may exist, but the State cannot effectively deliver them without identifying the beneficiaries.

Key Data

• • NITI Aayog estimated 77 lakh gig workers in 2020–21.
  • It projected the gig workforce to reach 2.35 crore by 2029–30, equivalent to around 4.1% of India’s total workforce.
  • As of January 2026, only 8.58 lakh gig workers were registered on e-Shram.
  • This indicates a massive registration gap between the estimated workforce and the formal welfare database.
  • However, an important caveat: NITI Aayog itself says its gig-worker estimates are indicative, because gig workers often perform multiple tasks and are difficult to capture through conventional employment surveys.

Why is this Gap Significant?

1. Recognition ≠ Actual Social Security

• • India has now legally recognised gig and platform workers.
  • The Code on Social Security, 2020 came into force on 21 November 2025 and includes provisions for gig and platform workers.
  • It provides a framework for schemes relating to:
    • Life and disability cover
    • Accident insurance
    • Health and maternity benefits
    • Old-age protection
  • But legal recognition alone does not guarantee actual benefits.

The real challenge has shifted from “recognising gig workers” to “reaching gig workers”.

2. The Data Problem is Bigger than Registration

• • India currently lacks a sufficiently robust official system for separately measuring gig work.
  • Gig workers may:
    • Work for multiple platforms.
    • Switch platforms frequently.
    • Combine gig work with other employment.
    • Work part-time.
  • Therefore, a person may be economically active but remain statistically invisible.

Analytical Point

You cannot design effective labour policy for a workforce that you cannot accurately measure.

NITI Aayog itself identified serious data gaps and recommended better methods for estimating the gig workforce.

3. Why Gig Workers Need Special Protection

Traditional employment generally provides an identifiable employer-employee relationship.

Gig work often operates differently:

Platform → Algorithm → Worker → Customer

The platform may determine:

• • Allocation of work
  • Ratings
  • Incentives
  • Performance standards
  • Sometimes even effective working conditions

Yet the worker may not enjoy the same level of protection as a conventional employee.

This creates a major policy dilemma:

Flexibility of gig work ↔ Security of traditional employment

4. Flexibility vs Precarity

Gig work offers genuine advantages:

• • Flexible working hours
  • Low entry barriers
  • Additional income
  • Opportunities for migrants and youth
  • Digital access to customers
  • Potential employment for women and PwDs

But it can also create:

• • Income uncertainty
  • Lack of paid leave
  • Accident and health risks
  • Algorithmic control
  • Rating-based insecurity
  • Limited bargaining power
  • Absence of traditional retirement benefits

Therefore, the objective should not be to eliminate gig work, but to make it decent and socially secure work.

5. e-Shram: Important Institutional Mechanism

• • e-Shram was launched in August 2021 as the National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW).
  • Workers register on a self-declaration basis and receive a Universal Account Number (UAN).
  • In December 2024, the government introduced an Aggregator Module to facilitate registration of platform aggregators and their workers.
  • By January 2026, 12 major aggregators had been onboarded, including Zomato, Swiggy, Uber, Ola, Amazon, Blinkit, Rapido and Urban Company.

But the problem remains:

Platform onboarding → Worker registration → Benefit delivery

The weakest link is currently worker-level coverage.

6. Implementation Gap in the Social Security Code

The Code provides the legal framework, but effective implementation requires:

• • Identification of workers
  • Registration
  • Creation of welfare schemes
  • Funding mechanisms
  • Centre-State coordination
  • Platform participation
  • Easy access to benefits

The Code also provides for aggregator contributions towards schemes for gig and platform workers, with the contribution capped at 5% of the amount paid/payable to such workers, subject to the statutory framework and notification.

Thus, the next challenge is converting legislation into functioning social protection.

7. Regional Imbalance

The image also highlights that registrations are highly uneven across States.

The top States include:

• • Maharashtra – 1,34,705
  • Uttar Pradesh – 1,30,505
  • Bihar – 1,09,207
  • West Bengal – 54,734
  • Delhi – 49,479

This suggests that registration depends on factors such as:

• • Urbanisation
  • Platform penetration
  • Digital literacy
  • State-level outreach
  • Awareness
  • Migration patterns

Hence, a one-size-fits-all approach may not work.

What Should Government Do?

1. Create Better Data

• • Include gig work as a distinct category in labour surveys.
  • Develop a dynamic database linking e-Shram + PLFS + platform data while protecting privacy.

2. Make Registration Platform-Driven

• • Platforms should actively facilitate worker registration rather than expecting individual workers to navigate government systems.

3. Portable Social Security

• • Benefits should follow the worker, not the employer or platform.
  • This is especially important because gig workers frequently switch platforms.

4. Strengthen Worker Protection

Focus on:

• • Accident insurance
  • Health protection
  • Maternity benefits
  • Old-age security
  • Income-risk protection
  • Grievance redressal

5. Protect Worker Autonomy

Social security should not come at the cost of the flexibility that attracts workers to gig employment.

Analytical Takeaway

The gig economy represents the changing nature of work in the digital age.

India faces a three-fold challenge:

Data Gap + Social Security Gap + Regulatory Gap

The solution is not to treat gig workers simply as employees or independent contractors, but to create a portable and universal social-security framework suited to the new labour market.

Conclusion

India’s gig economy can become an important source of employment, flexibility and inclusive growth, but only if economic flexibility is accompanied by social security. The priority now should be to move from “counting workers” to “protecting workers”, backed by reliable data, portable benefits and effective implementation of the Social Security Code.

Mains Question

India’s gig economy is expanding faster than its social-security architecture. Examine the challenges in extending labour protection to gig and platform workers.

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