Informal workers such as newspaper vendors and delivery agents sustain essential daily services but remain outside social security nets. Suggest measures.

Newspaper vendors and delivery agents start the circulation chain before dawn. On a day with a storm forecast they may begin as early as 2 a.m., so that "yesterday's news must reach today's reader" [1]. They work without contracts, employer contributions or insurance, so they fall outside the welfare net that the Code on Social Security, 2020 tries to widen [2].

Why they remain outside the net

• No identifiable employer: vendors are paid per copy through agents, so nobody contributes to PF or ESI for them.
• Classification gap: the Code recognises gig and platform workers for the first time [2]. Vendors do not work through an app, so they fall in the broad unorganised category, where benefits depend on schemes they must register for themselves.
• Access barriers: they work at night and move around, and registration needs documents. All of this keeps them away from welfare offices.
• Risk transfer: "a ten-minute delay at the printing press" ripples down the chain [1], so the last link bears the effects of weather and delay.

Measures

• Register workers where they work: hold enrolment camps at drop points, which every vendor visits daily [1]. Link these camps to the e-Shram portal through mobile vans and vendor associations.
• Put the Code into operation: states should notify sector-specific schemes through the State Unorganised Workers' Social Security Boards and draw on the Social Security Fund that the Code provides [2].
• Shared contribution: publishers and distribution agencies could pay a small levy, modelled on the aggregator contribution required of platform firms.
• Automatic enrolment in existing schemes: registered vendors should be enrolled by default in PMSBY (accident cover), PMJJBY (life cover), the PM-SYM pension and Ayushman Bharat.
• Occupational safety: provide reflective gear and rain kits. Use IMD alerts to trigger hazard allowances on days of extreme weather [1].
• Portability: one Aadhaar-linked social security account should follow the worker across states and jobs, for example from newspaper vendor to quick-commerce rider.
• Collective voice: recognise vendor unions in tripartite consultations so that schemes match how these workers actually live.

Vendors and delivery agents keep a public good flowing every morning, but the law still treats them as invisible. Taking registration to the drop point, sharing contributions with industry and making benefits portable would turn the Code's promise into actual coverage. This would advance the Directive Principles (Articles 38, 41 and 43) and SDG 8's goal of decent work for all.