The International Labour Organisation has lauded India for enabling 64% of its population access to social security. A series of new schemes such as Ayushman Bharat and Atal Pension Yojana besides the e-Shram portal for unorganised workers has enabled this, explains Banasree Purkayastha
What has the ILO said?
In a significant global recognition of India’s welfare schemes, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has published on its ILOSTAT dashboard that 64.3% of India’s population is now covered under at least one social protection benefit. That works out to over 940 million people, the second highest number of people in any country that has access to social security. India is also the first country in the world to reflect its 2025 coverage figures in the global database. The coverage includes a wide range of benefits such as health insurance, pension schemes, maternity benefits, and income support measures, particularly for women, informal sector workers, and economically weaker sections. The JAM trinity—Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar and mobile connectivity— underpins the success of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system. A transformative tool for India’s welfare delivery, DBT has reduced fiscal leakages by Rs 3.48 lakh crore and ensured a 16-fold expansion in coverage between 2009 and 2024 while halving subsidy allocations from 16% to 9% of total government expenditure.
Social security coverage trends
The figure of 64.3% social security coverage is based on data from Phase I of a government-led data integration exercise, focusing on central sector and women-centric schemes in eight states. Officials expect this figure to climb further once Phase II—which includes more state-level and sectoral schemes, is validated and incorporated into the ILO database. Preliminary estimates suggest coverage could cross one billion beneficiaries in the coming months. While in 2015 coverage was just 19%, by 2019 it had grown to 24.4%. The big leap happened subsequently. In 2022, the social security net was expanded to cover 48.8%, and by 2025 it covered 64.3% of the population. Social security is defined by the ILO as a system of contribution-based health, pension and unemployment protection, along with tax-financed social benefits.
Increased focus on informal workers
The Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan (PM-SYM) initiative, a contributory pension scheme for unorganised workers launched in 2019, has enrolled around 5 million beneficiaries till the end of FY24. As of April 2025, Atal Pension Yojana (APY), another pension scheme targeted at informal workers, had over 76.5 million subscribers (48% of whom were women) and a corpus of Rs 45,975 crore. Launched in 2021 to serve as a database of unorganised workers in 400 occupations in 30 broad sectors, the e-Shram portal is now being developed as a one-stop solution. It generates a Universal Account Number for each worker for employability realisation and access to social security benefits. Over 309 million unorganised workers have been registered on the portal, till June 16, 2025. Gig workers, around 7.7 million, are also being enrolled on the e-Shram portal to enable them to get social security benefits.
Other key schemes
The Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, which assures healthcare cover to the poor, now also covers all citizens aged 70 and above. It has benefitted nearly 550 million people, with 410.6 million Ayushman cards created so far, and treatments totaling nearly Rs 1.2 lakh crore done.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, small and marginal farmers receive Rs 6,000 per year via DBT mode. Over 980 million farmers benefitted from it in February 2025 even as over Rs 3.68 lakh crore has been disbursed in 19 tranches since inception. In line with the National Food Security Act, under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY), over 813.5 million beneficiaries get 5 kg of free foodgrains each every month. The annual food subsidy is projected to be around Rs 2.13 lakh crore. Meanwhile, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme ensures livelihood security to rural households, with over 57.8 million families benefitting in FY 25. For FY26, it has been allocated Rs 86,000 crore.
Why the ILO recognition matters
This milestone is expected to enhance India’s credibility in global forums, support the signing of Social Security Agreements (SSAs) with other countries and strengthen India’s position in international trade and labour mobility negotiations. These agreements help ensure the portability of social protection benefits for Indian professionals working overseas, while offering partner countries the transparency required for mutual recognition frameworks. This is expected to further bolster India’s position in labour mobility negotiations. The ILO has highlighted India’s approach as a model for other developing countries, especially for its use of digital infrastructure, such as Aadhaar-based identification, DBT platforms, and real-time beneficiary tracking to ensure that welfare schemes actually reach the people these are meant for.