Social security for unorganised, gig and platform workers

Labour and Industrial Law II · Unit V · Topic 18 of 18 · 7 min read

Chapter IX of the Code on Social Security, which replaces the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008: who is an unorganised, gig or platform worker, the Central and State schemes, the National and State boards, registration and the e-Shram portal, the aggregator's contribution of one to two per cent of turnover, the Social Security Fund, and Karnataka's 2025 gig workers law.

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On this page

1. Definitions
2. Schemes
3. The aggregator's contribution: section 114(3) to (7)
4. Boards
5. Registration, helplines and records
6. The Social Security Fund: section 141
7. Karnataka's law for platform workers
How this is examined

Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.

Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.

The problem the chapter answers. More than nine in ten Indian workers are outside the organised sector, and the contributory schemes in Chapters III to VII need an employer, a wage and an establishment above a threshold. Chapter IX of the Code on Social Security, 2020 (sections 109 to 114), with sections 6, 45 and 141, provides scheme-based social security instead, and for the first time defines and covers gig and platform workers. It replaces the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008, repealed from 21 November 2025.

1. Definitions

Unorganised sector, s.2(85): an enterprise owned by individuals or self-employed workers, producing or selling goods or providing services, which employs fewer than ten workers.
Unorganised worker, s.2(86): a home-based worker, self-employed worker or wage worker in the unorganised sector, and also a worker in the organised sector who is not covered by the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 or Chapters III to VII of the Code [UWSS Act s.2(m)].
Home-based worker, s.2(36): one who produces goods or services for an employer in his home or other premises of his choice, for remuneration, whether or not the employer supplies the materials.
Self-employed worker, s.2(75): one not employed by an employer, engaged in an unorganised-sector occupation within a notified monthly earning, or holding cultivable land within a notified ceiling.
Wage worker, s.2(90): a person employed for remuneration in the unorganised sector, directly or through a contractor, including home-based, temporary, casual and migrant workers and domestic workers employed by households.
Gig worker, s.2(35): a person who performs work or participates in a work arrangement and earns from it outside the traditional employer-employee relationship.
Platform work and platform worker, s.2(60), (61): a work arrangement outside a traditional employer-employee relationship in which organisations or individuals use an online platform to access other organisations or individuals to solve specific problems or provide specific services, for payment.
Aggregator, s.2(2): a digital intermediary or market place connecting a buyer or user of a service with the seller or service provider. The Seventh Schedule classifies them: ride sharing, food and grocery delivery, logistics, e-market places, professional services, healthcare, travel and hospitality, content and media, and any other platform.

Every platform worker is a gig worker, but not every gig worker works through a platform (a freelance photographer hired directly for one wedding is a gig worker). Neither is an “employee” in the Code's sense, so neither gets provident fund or gratuity as of right; they get what the schemes provide.

2. Schemes

Central schemes for unorganised workers (s.109(1)) [UWSS s.3(1)]: life and disability cover; health and maternity benefits; old age protection; education; and other benefits the Centre determines.
State schemes (s.109(2)) [s.3(4)]: provident fund, employment injury benefit, housing, educational schemes for children, skill upgradation, funeral assistance and old age homes.
Funding (ss.109(3), 110): wholly by the Centre, shared with the States, partly from beneficiaries' or employers' contributions, or from CSR funds; States may seek Central assistance. Each scheme must state its scope, implementing authority, beneficiaries, resources, agencies and grievance redressal (s.109(4)).
Gig and platform worker schemes (s.114(1)): life and disability cover, accident insurance, health and maternity benefits, old age protection, creche and other benefits, which may define the role of aggregators (s.114(2)).
ESI schemes (s.45): the Centre may frame schemes for unorganised, gig and platform workers and their families to receive ESI benefits through the Corporation, on contributions and user charges fixed by the scheme.

The 2008 Act listed in its First Schedule the Central schemes then running, including the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme, the National Family Benefit Scheme, Janani Suraksha Yojana, Aam Admi Bima Yojana, Janshree Bima Yojana and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, along with welfare schemes for handloom weavers, handicraft artisans and fishermen. Later Central schemes for this sector include the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan pension scheme (2019) and the life and accident insurance schemes PMJJBY and PMSBY. Questions on “Central Government schemes” are answered with these, followed by the Code's framework in s.109.

3. The aggregator's contribution: section 114(3) to (7)

A gig and platform scheme may be funded wholly by the Centre, jointly with States, wholly by aggregators, partly by beneficiaries and aggregators, from CSR or other sources. The aggregator's contribution is at a rate notified by the Centre of not less than one and not more than two per cent of its annual turnover (excluding taxes), but capped at five per cent of the amount paid or payable by it to gig and platform workers (s.114(4)). The date from which contributions begin is to be notified (s.114(5)), and the Centre may exempt aggregators (s.114(7)(ii)). The contribution goes into the gig and platform workers' account of the Social Security Fund.

4. Boards

National Social Security Board (s.6(1) to (8)) [UWSS s.5]: chaired by the Union Labour Minister, with forty nominated members from unorganised workers, their employers, civil society, Parliament, Central Ministries and the States, and adequate representation of SCs, STs, minorities and women. It recommends schemes, advises the Centre, monitors schemes and reviews record keeping and expenditure. Its term is three years; it meets at least thrice a year.
For gig and platform workers the same Board sits with a different membership: five representatives each of aggregators and of gig and platform workers, the ESIC Director General, the Central PF Commissioner, experts, five State representatives by rotation, and a Joint Secretary as Member Secretary (s.114(6)).
State Unorganised Workers' Board (s.6(9) to (16)) [UWSS s.6]: chaired by the State Labour Minister, with thirty-one nominated members; it recommends State schemes, monitors them and reviews registration and issue of cards. It meets once a quarter.

5. Registration, helplines and records

Registration (s.113) [UWSS s.10]: every unorganised, gig or platform worker who has completed sixteen years (or the prescribed age) and submits a self-declaration shall be registered on application with documents including Aadhaar, and given a distinguishable number. Self-registration online is provided for. A registered worker is eligible for the schemes (s.113(3)). (The 2008 Act fixed the age at fourteen.)
The national database for this is the e-Shram portal launched in 2021. In In re Problems and Miseries of Migrant Labourers, 2021 INSC 315, decided after the pandemic lockdowns, the Court directed the Centre to complete the portal for registering unorganised and migrant workers, the States to provide dry rations and community kitchens, and the implementation of One Nation One Ration Card, holding that the welfare schemes could not reach workers who were not registered.
Helplines and facilitation centres (s.112): to spread information on schemes, help with applications and registration, and enrol registered workers.
Record keeping (s.111): electronic records with continuous numbering to avoid duplication.

6. The Social Security Fund: section 141

The Centre establishes a Social Security Fund for unorganised, gig and platform workers, with three separate accounts: (i) funding for s.109 schemes; (ii) funding for s.114 schemes, including aggregators' contributions; (iii) sums from compounding of offences under the Code relating to the Central Government and other social security funds under Central labour laws. Each account is spent only for its own purpose. Each State sets up its own fund for unorganised workers from compounding of offences relating to it and other sources (s.141(5)). Under the OSH Code, sums from compounding of offences and certain penalties go to a separate social security fund for the welfare of unorganised workers set up by the appropriate Government (OSH Code s.115).

7. Karnataka's law for platform workers

The Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2025 (Karnataka Act 72 of 2025, deemed in force from 30 May 2025) sets up a Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers Welfare Board and fund, requires aggregators to register themselves and their workers, imposes fair-contract, transparency and termination rules (fourteen days' notice except in specified cases), and levies a welfare fee of one to five per cent of the payout to the worker on each transaction (s.20(1)). Section 20(5) treats the fee as the aggregator's contribution under section 114(4) of the Code, with yearly reconciliation. It is a useful example of a State law working within the Code's framework.

Trap. Do not write that gig workers are now “employees” under the Code. The definition in s.2(35) says the opposite: their work is outside the traditional employer-employee relationship. What the Code gives them is a statutory identity, registration, boards, schemes and a funding source.

How this is examined

Questions on the 2008 Act appear in every paper: “Discuss the features and schemes for the unorganised sector under the 2008 Act” (January 2026, 100 marks), “analyse the Central Government schemes provided to unorganised workers” (January 2026, 80 marks), “salient features” (February 2025), and the same question framed around the pandemic (August 2024, June 2019). Answer on Chapter IX, saying in one line that the 2008 Act stands repealed. Cover definitions, Central and State schemes, boards, registration and e-Shram, the aggregator contribution and the Social Security Fund, and close with Migrant Labourers (2021).

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