**Labour Ministry to Propose Pension Scheme for Gig Workers**
New Delhi, Feb 6 (PTI) – The Labour Ministry is preparing to seek the Union Cabinet’s approval for a pension scheme aimed at one crore gig workers associated with online platforms. This initiative will involve social security contributions deducted from their income for each transaction, according to an official source.
This development follows the recent Budget announcement by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who highlighted plans to implement a social security scheme for gig workers. In her Budget speech, she mentioned that the government would issue identity cards and assist in registering these workers on the e-Shram portal. Additionally, she stated that healthcare services would be provided under the PM Jan Arogya Yojana, benefiting nearly one crore gig workers.
The proposed scheme is designed to enable platform workers to access various social welfare benefits offered by government agencies. Sources indicate that the Labour Ministry is devising a system to collect social security contributions from online platforms like Ola and Uber, similar to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection model.
Under the scheme, workers will have two options upon retirement regarding their pension: they can either withdraw interest on their deposits or receive the accumulated funds in equal installments over a specified period. However, the exact percentage of income to be contributed to the social security scheme has yet to be determined.
Gig workers often engage with multiple platforms simultaneously. The e-Shram portal, launched in August 2021, aims to register and support workers in the unorganised sector by providing a Universal Account Number (UAN) and establishing a comprehensive National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW). As of January 27, 2025, over 30.58 crore unorganised workers have registered on the e-Shram portal, with 12 schemes from various central ministries already integrated with it.
According to the Social Security Code 2020, a gig worker is defined as an individual who participates in work arrangements and earns income outside the traditional employer-employee relationship, including those working with platforms like Uber, Ola, Swiggy, and Zomato.