India to provide ID cards for 10 million gig workers

India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced the Union Budget 2025 which includes funds for millions of new identity cards for gig workers as her ministry aims to boost economic dynamism.

Unveiling her eight consecutive budget, Sitharaman said: “Online platform workers or gig workers provide great dynamism to the new-age services economy.”

“Our government will arrange for ID cards for them with registration on the E-shram portal and give them health cover,” she continued, adding that the initiative will benefit of 10 million gig workers.

With the ID cards gig workers will be able to access a newly proposed welfare scheme, which includes healthcare and other social security benefits. The initiative will facilitate urban and online platform workers’ registration on the e-Shram portal.

Following her address, prime minister Modi called the Union Budget 2025 a “force multiplier” for India’s development journey.

Also announced in the finance minister’s budget was provision for greenfield airports in Bihar, an Indian state in the east of the country and its third most populous, in order to meet the future needs of the state. These will be in addition to expanding the capacity of Patna airport and a brownfield airport at Bihta.

Furthermore, a modified UDAN scheme (the country’s regional airport development program) will be launched to enhance regional connectivity to 120 new destinations and carry 40 million passengers in the next 10 years.

The issuing of identity cards to gig workers follows a digital identity program to digitize India’s agricultural sector. The farmer ID, which is linked to the Aadhaar biometric system, is a centralized digital identity that can help streamline benefits, insurance, subsidies and other welfare schemes. The ID is linked to the Farmers Registry, one of the three registries under the AgriStack initiative which aims to develop DPI in agriculture.

Article Topics

digital economy  |  digital identity  |  identity document  |  identity management  |  India