E-Shram should ensure workers' social security, easy registration: Experts

E-Shram, built at an estimated cost of Rs 704 crore, was launched by the Union government on August 26, 2021 to register 380 million unorganised sector workers

"Card banaya hai. Ab government se support milega to milega, nahi to nahi milega [I have got the card made, now let's see if we get support from the government, or not]," Rashid*, a Bengali migrant worker in Kerala's Ernakulam district, told IndiaSpend. He self-registered this November on the Ministry of Labour & Employment's e-Shram portal--a national database of unorganised sector workers--with the help of a non-profit's labour facilitation centre. But the process was not as straightforward as he had hoped. His Aadhaar-linked mobile number, which is required for self-registration, belonged to his mother back in Kolkata, so he was