The labour ministry is all set to seek approval from the Union Cabinet shortly for the execution of the three Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) schemes, which were announced in the July Budget, Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told reporters on Tuesday.
The Minister said that a note with a roll-out plan will be sent to the Cabinet to seek approval in the coming weeks, as consultations have taken place with other ministries and industry, and the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has upgraded its systems to implement the plans.
The ELIS with a budgetary outlay of ₹ 1,07,000 crores (for five years) was announced in Budget 2024-25 with an objective of employment generation, promoting employability and formalisation of labour.
Scheme A will incentivize first time eligible employees of an establishment in the formal sector and will reimburse one month wage upto ₹ 15,000 in three instalments. Schemes B will incentivize additional employment in the manufacturing sector, with respect to their EPFO contribution in the first four years of employment. And Scheme C will incentivize employers up to ₹ 3,000 per month for each additional employee for two years.
As per the ministry, in five years, Scheme A aims to benefit more than 21 million new employees; Scheme B is expected to benefit 3 million employees in the manufacturing sector; and Scheme C will facilitate employers to create nearly 5 million jobs for first-time and re-joinees.
Moreover, Mandaviya said that the ministry is developing the eShram portal as a “one-stop solution” with the aim to facilitate access of unorganised labour to various social security schemes being implemented by various Ministries/ Departments through a single platform.
Data of 10 schemes such as PMSVANidhi ( for street vendor), MGNREGA, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G), Ration Card, PMAY-U, PMJJBY( life insurance), PMSBY ( accident insurance), AB-PMJAY ( Ayushman Bharat), etc. have been mapped with eShram database in these 100 days alone, the Minister highlighted.
In future, integration with other schemes like PM Matru Vandana Yojana, Shramik Suraksha Yojana of Postal Deptt, Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission etc will also be done, he said.
Further, the portal will help in identifying registrants who have not yet received the benefits of various schemes so that such workers can be provided schemes’ benefit in a targeted manner based on their eligibility, the Minister mentioned.
Also, a platform workers module has been developed (in these 100 days) on eShram to facilitate verification of such workers registered on the portal through aggregators. Testing of this module with selected aggregators has been successfully completed. “This will enable eShram to have precise data of platform workers, activity-wise,” Mandaviya said.