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Centre plans to extend PMSBY claims deadline for informal workers

Between August 2021 and March 2022, close to 270 million workers had registered on the e-Shram portal

construction labour worker
Shiva Rajora New Delhi
2 min read Last Updated : Apr 21 2024 | 10:49 PM IST
The Centre is working to extend the deadline for unorganised sector workers to claim life and accident insurance cover under Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), sources told Business standard.

Last August,  the labour ministry had started a facility that allowed unorganised workers registered on the social security portal—e-Shram — between the inception of the database in August 2021 and March 2022 to file claims and avail insurance cover. According to the guidelines, only incidents that occurred after registration on e-Shram in August 2021 and before March 2022 were to be considered for availing the payout. The deadline to file claims under the facility expired last month. 

“A large number of states are yet to appoint nodal officers that have to accept and process these claims. Also, the number of claims filed under the facility have been quite low across the country. Given that a lot of people are still unaware of the facility, the government is considering extending the deadline for the facility so that the people who faced hardships during the Covid period can get some relief,” the person cited above said. 


Between August 2021 and March 2022, close to 270 million workers had registered on the portal.

Under the facility, an online ex-gratia module was developed under e-Shram portal to provide benefits in the form of  ex-gratia of Rs 200,000 for death or severe accident and Rs 100,000 for accident. The claim can be initiated by the registered worker himself in case of disability and only legal heirs of the registered workers can initiate the claim in case of death.  

The objective behind the e-Shram portal was the idea of creating a national database capturing the unorganised universe including workers ranging from agriculture and construction to new economy or gig. The portal has details such as name, occupation, address, educational qualification, skill type of the workers.

The government is also working on a slew of measures to provide benefits to the millions of unorganised sector workers registered on e-Shram, like integrating different portals. This is expected to help workers automatically avail various benefits under one umbrella.  

Topics :Gig economy in Indiaagriculture economyunorganised sectorInsurance Sector

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