Ministry of Labour and Employment is collaborating with States and ILO for a national social protection data pooling exercise
Hyderabad: Telangana was among the 10 States where the phase I of the data pooling exercise was kick-started by the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
The 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. It will help the States in identifying unique beneficiaries under state-specific social protection schemes, according to the Ministry.
The exercise, which was started a few days ago in a hybrid meeting, 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.
Apart from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Karnataka, and Gujarat were selected for implementing the exercise.
The Ministry is actively collaborating with the State governments and International Labour Organization (ILO) for a national social protection data pooling exercise to obtain a holistic picture of social protection coverage in India.
Labour departments of the States were playing the nodal role in compilation of respective State specific data and sharing the same with the Central government for further consolidation, verification and de-duplication, the Ministry said.
According to the Ministry, India has made significant strides in enhancing its social protection coverage through a comprehensive data-pooling exercise 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.
The exercise revealed that 65 per cent of India’s population (92 crore people) was covered by at least one social protection benefit (cash and in-kind both), with 48.8 per cent receiving cash benefits. India’s social protection coverage, thus, 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's present social protection coverage assessment by ILO i.e., 48.8 per cent is still an underestimation, as it does not account for in-kind benefits provided to the citizens of the country, such as food security and housing benefits and 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.
