Discuss how the Code on Social Security, 2020 addresses gig and platform workers. What are the challenges in putting it into practice?

The Code on Social Security, 2020 (Act No. 36 of 2020) [1] was the first Indian law to formally recognise gig and platform workers [2]. It protects people who work outside a traditional employer–employee relationship. NITI Aayog projected this workforce to grow from 77 lakh (2020–21) to 2.35 crore by 2029–30 [3]. The law is a landmark, but turning it into actual benefits has only just begun.

How the Code addresses gig and platform workers

• Legal recognition: the Code separately defines "gig worker", "platform worker" and "aggregator", which brings these workers into the social security net [2].
• Aggregator levy: aggregators pay 1–2% of annual turnover, capped at 5% of payouts to workers, into a Social Security Fund [2].
• Portability: each worker gets an Aadhaar-linked e-Shram ID, so benefits move with them across platforms [2].
• Operational rules: the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 were notified on 8 May 2026. They make registration on a central portal mandatory and require aggregators to share worker data through APIs [4]. To be eligible, a worker needs 90 days with one aggregator or 120 days across several [5].
• Institutional oversight: a National Social Security Board for unorganised, gig and platform workers has been notified [6].

Challenges in implementation

• Delay: the Codes came into force in November 2025, but the rules had not yet been notified [7]. Central rules arrived nearly six years after the law was passed, and benefits are not yet reaching workers at scale.
• Centre–State overlap: social security falls in the Concurrent List. Telangana has passed its own gig-workers Act [8], which risks duplicate registrations and levies.
• Data gaps: there is no separate official count of gig workers. NITI Aayog has urged counting them in surveys such as the PLFS [3]. Without that count, nobody can check whether the Fund will be adequate.
• Exclusion by threshold: seasonal, part-time and multi-app workers may not meet the 90/120-day test [5].
• Pro-cyclical funding: the levy is linked to payouts, so the Fund shrinks when work slows, which is exactly when workers need support most.
• Status gap: gig workers are recognised as workers but not as employees. Minimum wages, working hours and app-based deactivation therefore remain largely outside the Code's protection.

The Code has laid the legal, financial and digital foundations for protecting gig workers, and the task now is delivery. Three steps would turn recognition into real security: counting gig workers in the PLFS, starting the Fund with low-cost accident insurance as Indonesia did [3], and aligning Central and State rules through the new Board. Together they would advance SDG 8 (decent work) and Article 42's promise of just and humane conditions of work.