UWIN Card – Unorganized Worker Index Number Cards to Workers in Informal Sector

Labour Ministry, Central government has proposed to issue UWIN Card to labourers in Informal Sector. In this UWIN Card initiative, govt. will make registration of around 47 crore unorganized sector workers. Accordingly, people working as informal labour will be given Unorganized Worker Index Number Cards to enable them to avail the benefits of social security schemes run by EPFO and ESIC.

UWIN Card As Unorganised Workers Identification Number

Unorganised Workers Identification Number or UWIN Card is a proposed unique number to be issued as the identity proof to unorganised workers in India. The unorganised workers Identification Number is a number provided to the large section of unorganised sector workers by issuing a unique ID and allotting an Aadhaar seeded identification number without issuing any smart cards. 

In 2014 the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment had decided to design and develop the unorganised workers’ Identification Number (UWIN) platform under the unorganised workers Social Security Act 2008. It had been mandated for every unorganised sector worker to get themselves registered at the UWIN platform. The Ministry of Labour and Employment has allocated a sum of ₹402.7 crores for the implementation of the project in two phases.

Beneficiaries of UWIN Card

The Indian labour force is divided into Formal and an which consists of 47.41 crore people of which 82.7% of the labour force lie under the unorganised sector and 17.3% lie under the organized sector as per the NSSO survey 2011-12. Therefore, to provide the social security benefits the Government of India had enacted the unorganised workers Social Security Act in 2008, to create a right-based legal framework for providing the social security framework to the least benefited unorganised sector workers. Under this act the provision of UWIN is made to provide these workers with all the social security benefits. At present there is no centralized database that shows the number of unorganised workers in India. UWIN will help to build the national unorganised worker’s database.

As per the expectation of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the national database of unorganised workers shall cover 675 districts in 29 states and 7 union territories. This data would be useful for other ministries to provide benefits to the workers under the social security schemes. UWIN cards will bring the unorganized sector workers under social security net. Accordingly labourers will get access to various schemes of Employee Provident Fund Organization (retirement fund body) and Employee State Insurance Corporation (state health insurer).

Objectives of UWIN Card Initiative

Here are the major objectives of the UWIN Card Initiative to provide identification number to unorganized sector workers:-

• Creation of a single unified sanitized database for unorganised workers to act as a platform to enable social security services to be provided to unorganised workers.
• Identification of unorganised workers after they are duly registered, assigning a unique UWIN (unorganised Workers Identification Number) to every registered worker.
• The card will include family details through concept of nuclear family and linked family, and associated linkages to facilitate delivery of family-based benefits through the scheme.
• This Platform will assist in identifying and enabling skill development requirement, employer-worker mapping and outcome-based policy formulation and decision making.
• Expand the social security schemes’ benefits to approximately 15 Crore Families (40 Crore Unorganised Workers).

SECC 2011 Data as Base Database for UWIN Card Initiative

For the UWIN Platform, Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC) shall be used as a base database. SECC-2011 is a study of socio-economic status of rural and urban households and allows ranking of households based on predefined parameters. SECC data is a compilation of 24 lakhs enumeration blocks where each enumeration block has roughly 125 households. These are the same enumeration blocks that were formed during census. The SECC 2011 data can be checked using the link – https://sarkariyojana.com/all-india-new-bpl-list-download-secc-2011-data/

SECC database captures Individual & Household Information ranging from Demographic details, Income, Employment and Ownership Profiles along with family linkages. The UWIN Database will use fields from the SECC database along with additional information provided by the unorganised worker during the registration and validation phase. Following data fields from SECC will be part of UWIN:-

1. State Code
2. District Code 
3. Sub District Code
4. Name of the person
5. Permanent Address
6. Gender
7. Date of Birth
8. Marital Status
9. Name of Father
10. Name of Mother
11. Occupation / Activity
12. Main Source of Income
13. Disability

An Overview of UWIN Card for Informal Workers

Each UWIN Card has a unique number embedded on it which will get seeded with Aadhaar Number. This is essential in order to provide benefits of social security schemes at single point. Moreover after the registration process is complete, govt. may bring Labour Code on Social Security & welfare. UWIN Cards are efficient and the pilot phase results of this system are satisfactory.

However, primary issue remains that who will pay contribution to the informal workers under schemes of EPFO and ESIC. Under these schemes, employees and employers both contribute to social security scheme accounts. Accordingly, govt. plans to formulate a separate mechanism to collect funds as employers will not contribute for this scheme.

Central govt. wants to assign social security code to the informal labourers. This new code will resolve the issue of employer contribution. In addition to this, code also facilitate the worker to become a principal employer if worker is an informal or non-employee. This code will eliminate the need of principal employer to subscribe and avail benefits of social security schemes.

Furthermore, code on Social Security & Welfare would merge all 15 existing social security laws. This will include EPF & MP Act, ESI Act, Maternity Benefit Act, Payment of Gratuity Act, Employees Compensation Act, Unorganized Social Security Act and several other Welfare Cess or Fund Acts.

For complete details, click the link – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unorganised_Workers%27_Identification_Number

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