The eShram portal was launched on August 26, 2021, by the Ministry of Labour and Employment to create a National Database of unorganised/migrant workers and to provide them with Universal Account Number(UAN).

The portal has received an unprecedented response from the unorganised/migrant workers of the country and as on 24th February 2023, over 28.60 crore workers have registered on the eShram portal.

One of the objectives of the eShram portal is to extend the benefits of social security and welfare schemes to unorganised workers especially migrant workers and to identify workers who are deprived of the various benefits of the welfare schemes of the Central and/or State Government due to lack of awareness or otherwise. 

With this objective, Ministry of Labour & Employment initiated the matching of the eShram beneficiaries’ data with the Ration Card (National Food Security Act (NFSA)) data available with the Department of Food and Public Distribution(DFPD).  

The complete data set of Ration card was made available by the DFPD to the Ministry of Labour & Employment. On matching of the two data sets, it has been observed that out of total of 28.60 crore eShram registrants, about 20.63 crore eShram registrants are registered in the NFSA database of DFPD and about 7.96 core eShram registrants are yet to get registered on NFSA data.  

Ministry of Labour and Employment is conveying the details of all eShram registered unorganised/migrant workers who are not yet registered on NFSA to DFPD so that these eShram registrants may also be included under the database of DFPD as per their eligibility. This initiative will ensure that Ration Card benefits under NFSA is made available to all eligible workers registered on eShram. 

The eShram portal is already integrated with National Career Service (NCS) portal and more than 10 lakhs eShram registrants have registered on NCS to get benefits of domestic as well as international jobs available on NCS portal. Further, eShram portal is also integrated with the PMSYM portal to facilitate eShram registrants getting benefits of the pension scheme of the Ministry of Labour & Employment. 

Ministry of Labour & Employment is constantly making efforts to work towards the welfare of the entire workforce under both organized and unorganized sectors. The above initiative will definitely be beneficial to a large section of unorganized workers and their families.