During the 2025 Union Budget, the Minister of Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced significant measures for the concert and platform workers who say that concert workers would receive health insurance under the flagship of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Government Jan Aragya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).

The interested parties have welcomed the measure, but they have also expressed concern that concert workers still expect a National Integral Law, a dedicated well -being board and the complete implementation of these measures.

Currently, the National Health Authority (NHA) implements the world’s largest health insurance scheme, which provides a health coverage of ₹ 5 Lakh per family per year. According to AB-PMJAY terms, there is no waiting period or restrictions on pre-existing health conditions.

Concert workers will also receive identity cards and will be eligible to register on the E-ShRAM portal, the National Database of Workers not organized under the Ministry of Labor.

Labor Force at the Concert

According to Niti Aayog estimates, it is projected that the workforce at the Indian concert will grow from 7.7 million in 2024 to 23.5 million by 2029-30.

With the expansion of the digital economy, independent work opportunities have increased, promoting the rapid growth of the concert sector. For fiscal year 30, the economy of the concert is expected to reach 235 million workers, which represents 4.1 percent of the total workforce.

“The government that assumes some responsibility for concert workers is a welcome movement, but the difficult situation of concert workers is beyond this. There must be legislation that covers it to govern the operation of applications -based platform companies to safeguard the interest of concert workers, “said Vinay Sarathy V, president of United Food Delivery Partners’ Union (UFDPU).

However, Vinay pointed out that the modalities to access the new health insurance scheme have not yet been published. As there is no transparency in hiring, there are no regulations for payment, the repair of complaints, the work hours, the security in the workplace and others, it can continue to be a pious statement and would not serve the expected purpose of the coverage Health in reality.

“Five years later, most informal workers will be in the platform sector. It is time for the government to bring an adequate policy, guarantee the security, security and rights of concert workers, ”he added.

Shaik Salauddin, National Secretary General of the Indian Federation of Application Based Transport Workers (IFAT), says that these schemes are totally effective, aggregating companies must share data on concerts and platform workers with the government. “The government of India must guarantee a strict implementation and responsibility, so it is mandatory for all platform companies to register workers and contribute to social security schemes. It is necessary to guarantee the contributions of aggregate companies towards social security schemes for concert and platform workers, ”he said.

He said it is more important to strengthen the integration of the E-ShRAM registration for concert workers and platforms with existing well-being schemes. Registration alone will not be enough to ensure that concert workers can access the complete benefits of these initiatives.