The gig and platform economy is expanding, offering new jobs in sectors like ridesharing, delivery, logistics, and professional services. NITI Aayog has projected that the gig economy in India will employ over 1 crore workers in 2024-25, subsequently reaching 2.35 Crores by 2029-30.

Recognizing the contribution of the gig and platform workers to the nation’s economy, Union Budget 2025-26 announcement has provisions for (i) registration of online platform workers on e-Shram portal, (ii) issue of identity cards, and (iii)  healthcare coverage under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

The AB-PMJAY health scheme provides a cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization across over 31,000 public and private empanelled hospitals in India.

For early implementation of these Budget provisions, the Ministry of Labour and Employment is soon launching the scheme. As a first step, Ministry requests the Platform Workers to self-register themselves on e-Shram portal, so that they may be considered for the benefits under the scheme at the earliest.

The Platform aggregators are also to disseminate this information among the platform workers engaged with them and facilitate them to register on e-Shram portal.

Platform workers may visit the e-Shram portal of this Ministry and complete their registration on priority. The link to the e-Shram portal is given below:

https://register.eshram.gov.in

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Himanshu Pathak