Budget 2025: 1 Cr+ Gig Workers To Get Social Security Boost

In a significant move aimed at bolstering the gig economy, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a comprehensive social security scheme for gig workers in her Budget 2025 speech.

The initiative, spearheaded by the labour and employment ministry, is expected to benefit nearly 1 Cr gig workers by providing essential health insurance, as well as death and disability cover, potentially rolling out from the next financial year.

To further strengthen the welfare framework for gig workers, the government is prioritising their formal registration through ID cards and enrollment on the e-Shram portal. Under this initiative, gig workers will gain access to healthcare benefits through the PM Jan Arogya Yojana, ensuring improved medical coverage.

“Gig workers of online platforms provide great dynamism to the new-age services economy. Recognising their contribution, our government will arrange for their identity cards and registration on the e-Shram portal,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Budget 2025 speech.

Additionally, the government has announced a revamp of the PM Swanidhi Scheme, introducing higher loan limits and a INR 30,000 UPI-linked credit card. These measures aim to enhance financial inclusion and provide greater economic stability for urban gig workers. The revamped scheme is expected to facilitate easier access to credit, fostering self-sufficiency among this rapidly expanding workforce.

A new socio-economic upliftment initiative for urban workers is also in the pipeline, further amplifying financial opportunities through enhanced loan schemes under PM Swanidhi.

The finance minister also announced steps to boost startups in her speech. She said that a new fund of funds (FoF) for startups would be set up with an additional corpus of INR 10,000 Cr. This comes as the previous such FoF launched by the Centre utilised its entire INR 10,000 Cr corpus, translating into commitments of more than INR 91,000 Cr.