The Ministry of Labour and Employment has notified the setting up of the National Social Security Board for Unorganised Workers and Gig and Platform Workers, according to a Press Information Bureau release on Friday. The board is set up under the Code on Social Security, and the ministry calls it a step toward bringing gig and platform workers into the formal welfare system.
Who sits on it
The board will be chaired by the Union Minister for Labour and Employment. Its members will include representatives of the Centre and the States, aggregator companies, employers, civil society groups, workers' unions and gig and platform worker associations. It will meet at least three times a year.
What it will do
- Recommend schemes to the Centre for different groups of unorganised, gig and platform workers.
- Advise the Centre on matters under the Code that are referred to it.
- Monitor central welfare schemes for these workers.
- Review record-keeping by the States, and spending from the fund.
Why it matters
Gig and platform workers, such as delivery riders and cab drivers who work through apps, have mostly been outside India's social security system because they are not employees in the usual sense. The Code on Social Security is the first law to define them. The board is the body that turns that recognition into actual schemes, and having the aggregator companies at the same table as the workers' associations matters for who pays for them.