Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has observed a substantial increase in the registration of new establishments from the financial year 2019-20 to 2023-24. This significant growth, driven by various recent government policies and initiatives, highlights the effective measures undertaken to promote business formalization and employment generation. The total number of new establishments registered with the EPFO saw a remarkable rise, with figures climbing from 117,063 in 2019-20 to 294,256 in 2023-24. This upward trend underscores the success of government efforts in fostering a more robust and inclusive economic environment.

To streamline operations and enhance service delivery, the Government has implemented numerous measures aimed at digitization and the effective redressal of grievances. The digitization efforts encompass several user-friendly platforms and technologies, enabling easy access and efficient handling of grievances.

The details of these digital initiatives and grievance redressal mechanisms are outlined below:

1. EPFO has devised various redressal mechanisms in both online and offline modes wherein the labourers/workers can lodge their problems/complaints with the concerned authority in EPFO
2. The workers can file their grievances in online mode through portals like CPGRAMS, EPFIGMS, UMANG APP.  
3. Grievances can also be sent through offline mode in the form of DAKs and by physical visits to the concerned office.  The grievances are duly acknowledged and resolution is provided as per provisions/rules for which a Public Relations Officer has been appointed in all the field offices.
4. The Department has further embarked on grass-root outreach to the hinterland of the Country through the introduction of NIDHI AAPKE NIKAT wherein endeavour is made for on-spot redressal of the problems of workers.
5. The Organization has call centres which provide services in Hindi, English and ten vernacular languages.
6. Following reforms have also been introduced:

• Auto settlement of EPF Advance claims
• E-nomination special drive
• EDLI/Pension Calcutaor
• Filing of Digital Life Certificate in any month
• Digi-locker facility
• NidhiApkeNIkat 2.0 awareness campaign
• Face recognition technology for DLC
• Online bulk transfer facility of PF accumulation from exempted to un-exempted establishment and vice-versa from November, 2020
• Auto Transfer of accounts for employees having one UAN allotment after 2012
• Auto transfer facility on change of employment for employees who joined after 01.10.2016
• Multi-location claim settlement
• Condition of submission of documents with advance claim has been removed
• Self-generation of UAN facility
• DSC/E-sign PDF uploading in employer unified portal
• E-pass book
• Online facility for joint declaration for KYC correction
• Aadhaar seeding has been mandatory to avoid mismatch of member details for employees joined after 01.09.2017
• Under Prayaas initiative PPO are handed over on the day of retirement.

This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Labour & Employment, Smt. Shobha Karandlaje in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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Himanshu Pathak