Urban Company and ILO collaborate to expand e-Shram registrations

Urban Company has announced a joint initiative to increase social protection coverage for platform-based service professionals by accelerating their registration on the Government of India’s eShram portal.

eShram is a centralised database of unorganised workers that was created to improve social security benefits for them. It enrols unorganized workers between the age of 16-59 years, and who are not part of other schemes like EPFO, ESIC or NPS.

The company’s goal is to help gig and platform workers get access to such formal social security systems. This includes women professionals working under Urban Company’s InstaHelp vertical.

Under this initiative, eShram registration will be built directly into Urban Company’s onboarding and training processes. New and existing service professionals will get assisted enrolment when they attend onboarding sessions, upskilling programmes, or refresher trainings.

Registration will also be enabled through a partner app, at company training centres, and through UC Mitra kiosks, using digital and physical infrastructure.

Around 20 per cent of the company’s 59,000-plus service professionals are registered on the eShram portal. With this structured enrolment drive, Urban Company plans to cover all active professionals on its platform.

International Labour Organization representatives added that the initiative is designed as a scalable model to help strengthen social protection for India’s growing gig workforce.