Ashish Bhai is a middle-aged construction worker employed in the Ranip site of Bakeri Constructions in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. When asked about the different concerns and uncertainties revolving around mass registrations like eShram & eNirman, his responses prick our privilege bubble and make us reflect on how we approach social security.
eShram and eNirman are labour registration portals pan India for unorganised workers and building and other construction workers in Gujarat, respectively. eShram was introduced on August 26, 2021, by the Central government to address the data gap and policy challenges of the COVID-19 migrant crisis. eNirman was introduced around the same time by the Gujarat government as the new avatar of ‘Laal Chopdi’ – i.e. registration portal for building and construction workers to avail of certain entitlements.
It is to be noted that both eNirman and the older version ‘Laal Chopdi’ are essentially for registration of building and construction workers as “beneficiaries” under Section 12 of THE BUILDING AND OTHER CONSTRUCTION WORKERS’ (REGULATION OF EMPLOYMENT AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE) ACT, 19961.
Under this Act, a State level welfare board has been established which receives CESS money from the employer (refer to Section 3 of THE BUILDING AND OTHER CONSTRUCTION WORKERS’ WELFARE CESS ACT, 1996). This CESS money is used to provide a plethora of benefits like pension, housing loans, group insurance, etc., to the workers who are registered as beneficiaries.
The conversation started with Ashish Bhai sharing his thoughts on the eNirman scheme as a building worker. He said these schemes are just plastic cards if they don’t translate into tangible benefits. He mentioned this in the context of how he did not receive any benefits despite being registered under “Laal Chopdi” – i.e., the older version of eNirman. As a result, Ashish Bhai had to register again under eNirman, although he was a registered beneficiary with the Gujarat Building and Other Construction Welfare Board (under ‘Laal Chopdi’).
This lack of data convergence heavily burdens the beneficiaries. Further, since the entire process is facilitated by a Common Service Centre (CSC) through an online platform, there is no clarity over a guaranteed redressal mechanism or end-to-end support (like preparing the mandatory documents for registration) in receiving entitlements.
When asked if Ashish Bhai had a smartphone/other electronic devices through which he could access or file claims to get benefits, he wryly nodded with a ‘no’. Some more unstructured conversations followed this to understand the impact of mass databasing on privacy and other rights.
Ashish bhai shared that he had no qualms with the sharing/ database-ing of his personal information as long as he got the promised benefits. This raises very pertinent questions of vulnerability and lack of negotiating power that informal workers like Ashish Bhai have against the State.
On the one hand, there is an unaddressed issue of awareness creation regarding the procedure for availing benefits (i.e. after registering), possible privacy concerns, other rights violations and lack of established offline (and physically accessible) redressal mechanisms. Most of all, a stark policy gap and a lack of political will for bridging the digital divide. On the other hand, there are serious privacy concerns as these databases function without legislative backing.
Apart from functioning as an online portal, eNirman has also been introduced as an app in the Android Play Store, which is also unregulated by any legislation. When there is no legislative framework to regulate and monitor its functioning, it translates into a very high leeway for commercial exploitation, lack of clarity over the sunset clause and aggrieved parties being unable to find remedies through a set legal course. Further, it shifts the accountability from a set institution that can be pinned responsible for violations to a set of algorithms which can easily be brushed aside as technical slips.
Which brings us to the most important question- if Ashish Bhai can’t avail eNirman fully, who is it even supposed to benefit?