New Delhi [India], March 25 : The Ministry of Labour & Employment is actively collaborating with State Governments and ILO for a national social protection data pooling exercise to obtain a holistic picture of social protection coverage in India, the Ministry of Labour & Employment said in a release.
Labour Departments of State Governments are playing the nodal role in the compilation of respective State-specific data and sharing the same with the Central Government for further consolidation, verification and de-duplication, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Labour & Employment kick-started Phase 01 of India's Social Protection Data Pooling Exercise on 19.03.2025 in a hybrid meeting organised by Ministry Labour and Employment. For Phase 01, Ministry has identified selected states i.e. Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Gujarat for data consolidation at the Central level.
This data pooling exercise will not only strengthen India's global reputation as a social protection pioneer, but also facilitate the Central Government, States and UTs to optimize welfare spending and move closer towards sustainable financing of social protection, the ministry added. It will help the States in identifying unique beneficiaries under state specific social protection schemes.
The exercise will also reinforce India's position in negotiating trade and social security agreements with other countries, and reflect India's commitment to promoting decent work in global value chains.
India's social protection coverage, doubled from 24.4 per cent in 2021 to 48.8 per cent in 2024 as per ILO's World Social Protection Report (WSPR) 2024-26, by acknowledging existing Central social protection schemes which hadn't been considered earlier India has made significant strides in enhancing its social protection coverage through a comprehensive data-pooling exercise led by the Ministry in collaboration with ILO.
By utilizing encrypted Aadhaar as a unique identifier across 34 major Central schemes such as MGNREGA, EPFO, ESIC, APY and PM-POSHAN, over 200 crore records were processed to identify unique beneficiaries.
This exercise revealed that 65% of India's population (92 crore people) is covered by at least one social protection benefit (cash and in-kind both), with 48.8% receiving cash benefits. India's social protection coverage, thus, doubled from 24.4% in 2021 to 48.8% in 2024 as per ILO's World Social Protection Report (WSPR) 2024-26, by acknowledging existing Central social protection schemes which hadn't been considered earlier.
India's present social protection coverage assessment by ILO i.e., 48.8 per cent is still an underestimation, as it does not account for (a) in-kind benefits provided to the citizens of the country, such as food security and housing benefit; and (b) social protection schemes administered by the States. The actual social protection coverage of India is expected to be much higher after this data is taken into account.
In this context, Ministry has been consistently following-up with ILO Headquarters on this matter through a focussed high-level dialogue. In a bilateral discussion held between Secretary (L&E) and DG, ILO during the 353rd ILO Governing Body meeting at Geneva last week with India, ILO shared that housing and food security are part of a set of extended indicators (based on United Nations-Sustainable Development Goals) adopted by them. Therefore, such schemes and related data will also be considered by ILO.