What is "E-Shram portal (Shramik Card)" ?

Special camps would be organised to register brick kiln, plantation, forestry and other unorganised sector workers on the Centre's e-Shram portal.

The portal was launched in August 2021 by the Ministry for Labour and Employment for the registration of "unorganized workers" who are not members of the EPFO or ESIC (Employees' State Insurance).

It has over 23 crore registrations so far and is eventually meant to lead to the creation of a national database of unorganised workers to be used to roll-out welfare schemes.

Workers would have to register with their Aadhaar numbers on the e-Shram portal to generate an e-Shram card with universal account numbers (UANs).

It is with these UANs that they would be able to access social security schemes.

UAN is a 12-digit permanent number i.e. once assigned, it will remain unchanged for the worker's lifetime.

All workers who register on eshram.gov.in will get an insurance cover of ₹2 lakh for death or permanent disability, and ₹1 lakh for partial disability.

Any worker who is unorganized and aged between 16-59, is eligible to register on the e-Shram portal.

To register for the e-SHRAM site, the employee must have an Aadhaar number, an Aadhaar-connected cellphone number, and a bank account number.

The registered workers will be enrolled under Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and premium for the first year will be borne by the Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India.

Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), launched in 2015, is an Accidental Insurance scheme eligible to the people between 18-70 years of age group.

It provides benefit of Rs. 2 Lacs at the time of accidental death and permanent disability & Rs. 1 Lac in case of partial disability.

Unorganised sector comprises of establishment/ units which are engaged in the production/ sale of goods/ services and employs less than 10 workers.

These units are not covered under ESIC & EPFO.