Labour Ministry gets mandate to seek Aadhaar from beneficiaries under Social Security Code

Only about a tenth of the country’s estimated 50 crore working population now comes under some sort of social security cover.

The labour ministry has notified a section under the social security code, passed by Parliament last September, empowering itself to collect Aadhaar details to seed with the database it is creating for migrant and other unorganized sector workers for extending various benefits under different government schemes.

Labour secretary Apurva Chandra told reporters on Wednesday that section 142 under the social security code has been notified only for the collection of data of workers including migrant workers. However, no benefit will be denied to such a set of workers for want of Aadhaar.

“An inter-state migrant worker can register himself on the portal based on submission of Aadhaar alone,” Chandra said. He hopes the creation of the database will start in the next two to three months.

The labour ministry had earlier said it hoped to bring at least 25 crore unorganised sector workers under the social security net in five years, as part of its plan to extend old-age pension, health insurance, disability aids and a host of other social security benefits to all sections, including gig, platform and migrant workers, under the social security code.

Only about a tenth of the country’s estimated 50 crore working population now comes under some sort of social security cover.

The database to be developed by the government in which unorganised sector workers will get themselves registered based on self-certification through a simple procedure using Aadhaar. All social security schemes and benefits will flow through a portal to be developed using the database. It will also capture the skill set and other details of the unorganised sector workers, he said.

The platform will be used for registration, enrollment, identification and collection of other required data for all such workers. It will be the primary database around which all social security schemes will be structured.

Under the social security code, a provision for providing comprehensive social security schemes to the unorganised sector has been made. The government intends to implement schemes under the social security code in phases. A social security fund will be created on the financial side to implement these schemes.