e‑Shram earnings snapshot

India’s e‑Shram registry has grown into a 300‑million‑plus database of informal workers, and the income figures attached to it remain overwhelmingly low. (pib.gov.in) The Ministry of Labour and Employment said on August 7, 2025 that more than 30.98 crore unorganised workers were registered on e‑Shram as of August 3, 2025. The portal was launched on August 26, 2021 to build a national database of informal workers linked to Aadhaar. (pib.gov.in) The income field on e‑Shram is self-declared, not verified with documents. The portal’s own frequently asked questions say workers do not have to provide proof of income when they register. (eshram.gov.in) That matters when e‑Shram numbers are used as a snapshot of earnings rather than a full census of India’s labour market. The registry is designed to deliver welfare benefits and social security measures to unorganised workers, not to measure all wages across the economy. (eshram.gov.in) Government-linked reporting has pointed to the same broad pattern since the portal’s early years. Business Standard, citing e‑Shram data in May 2022, reported that 94.11% of registered informal workers said they earned Rs 10,000 or less a month. (business-standard.com) The early e‑Shram data also showed who was entering the database first. A November 2021 government update said more than half of registered workers were in agriculture, and a March 2025 ministry release said women made up 53.68% of registrations. (labour.gov.in, pib.gov.in) The portal has been expanded over the past two years from a registration system into a benefits gateway. The labour ministry said e‑Shram One‑Stop‑Solution launched on October 21, 2024, and 14 central schemes had been integrated or mapped to the platform by August 2025. (pib.gov.in, pib.gov.in) Officials have also added access tools aimed at scale. The ministry said the portal became available in 22 Indian languages on January 7, 2025, and the e‑Shram mobile app launched on February 24, 2025. (pib.gov.in) The labour ministry has also said e‑Shram is not a gatekeeper for welfare. Eligible workers can still receive integrated scheme benefits even if they are not registered on the portal. (pib.gov.in) So the registry’s earnings numbers are best read as a large, self-reported picture of India’s informal workforce: millions of workers signing up for benefits, and most of them placing their monthly income at the bottom end of the scale. (eshram.gov.in, pib.gov.in, business-standard.com)