With most of the workforce informal, how far can the Code on Social Security, 2020 help achieve SDG-8 for gig and platform workers?

SDG-8 calls for "decent work for all", meaning fair income, rights, social security and dignity. India's unemployment rate is just 3.2% [2], yet nearly 90% of workers are informally employed [1]. The Code on Social Security, 2020, in force since 21 November 2025 [3], moves gig and platform workers towards decent work only partly.

How the Code advances SDG-8

• Legal recognition: it gives the first statutory definition of 'gig worker' and 'platform worker' [3]. These workers move from invisibility to entitlement.
• Dedicated financing: aggregators pay 1–2% of annual turnover, capped at 5% of payments to workers, into a social security fund [3].
• Portability: an Aadhaar-linked e-Shram ID follows the worker across apps [3]. This suits multi-platform work.
• Targeting base: e-Shram has registered over 31 crore unorganised workers [5].
• Technical support: the ILO is helping India frame social security schemes for platform workers [6].

Where it falls short

• Narrow reach: the levy needs an aggregator to charge. Self-employed tailors, street vendors and farm helpers make up most of the informal workforce [1], and they have no platform to pay in for them.
• Registration is not protection: only about 5.12 lakh platform workers had registered on e-Shram by December 2025 [4]. A registration gives no benefit until a funded scheme is attached to it.
• Enabling, not entitling: benefits depend on schemes the government notifies, not on enforceable rights.
• Beyond social security: platform work is algorithmically controlled and remains informal work "with hardly any social security provisions" [1]. Income volatility and opaque deactivation lie outside the Code's scope.

Way forward

• Notify time-bound schemes for accident, health and old-age cover, linked to e-Shram IDs.
• Design contribution-plus-state-subsidy schemes for the self-employed, who have no aggregator.
• Report job-quality indicators, such as contracts and social security coverage, alongside the unemployment rate in PLFS releases [2].
• Use ILO tripartite expertise for scheme design and grievance redressal [6].

The Code makes gig workers visible and gives them a funding channel. This is necessary for SDG-8 but not sufficient. Its success should be judged by benefits paid, not registrations counted. Funding the promised schemes and extending cover to the self-employed would make the Code a real foundation for Article 43's living wage and for decent work for all.