Women workforce and e-Shram portal: An unexpected trend emerges
According to the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoL&E), more than 27 crore workers have registered on the e-Shram portal till March 2022. About 53% of these are female and 47% are male.
The agriculture sector has seen a large presence of women workforce. This is followed by women workers in the domestic and family-workers, construction and apparel sectors.
Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya and Kerala have the highest enrollment of women workers.
About 62% of the workers are in the age group of 18-40.
Reasons for increasing the registration of women workers-
- Organizations working at the grassroots level have played a major role. They work closely with women’s groups in both rural and urban areas.
- Women workers are part of the informal economy.
- The e-shram portal is the first national database of unorganized workers in the country. It was launched in August 2020.
Portal related issues:
- It has not been successful in collecting information about migrant workers, which was its first task. The most marginalized people in the workforce are out of it.
- There is a lack of clarity on data collection. Also, the situation is not clear on how the social and security related benefits will be passed on to the registered workers.
Steps to help workers in the unorganized sector:
- Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PM-SYM) scheme has been started.
- PM Svanidhi- Micro credit scheme for street vendors has been started.
- Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) is being run.
- Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi has been announced.
Source – The Hindu
