Jammu Kashmir Records 36 Lakh Migrant, Unorganised Workers on National Portal | Kashmir Life

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has registered 36,11,958 unorganised and migrant workers on the Union Labour Ministry’s eShram portal, according to figures placed before the Lok Sabha in response to a question raised by Abhishek Banerjee and Kalyan Banerjee.

The Union Government said the portal, launched in August 2021, has become the primary national database for unorganised labour, including migrant workers moving across States and Union Territories for employment. As on December 3, 2025, a total of 31.39 crore workers had been registered nationwide, with Jammu and Kashmir contributing one of the significant tallies among smaller States and Union Territories.

In its reply, the Government said the eShram platform allows any unorganised worker to self-declare and register, providing Aadhaar-seeded identification to enable portability of benefits and nationwide tracking of workforce movement. The Ministry of Labour and Employment maintained that the system has become central to understanding migration patterns, welfare access and the scale of inter-State labour movement. The Ministry added that it does not maintain a separate year-wise list of migrant workers in any State, including Jammu and Kashmir, beyond the cumulative eShram registrations.

On the issue of alleged discrimination faced by workers from West Bengal in different States, the Government said no such cases were recorded on its central database and that labour is a subject shared between the Centre and State governments. It said the primary protections for migrant labourers are already guaranteed under the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act of 1979, which has now been subsumed under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code of 2020. Under the updated legal regime, migrant labourers are entitled to minimum wages, journey and displacement allowances, accommodation, medical facilities, protective equipment, grievance redressal mechanisms, toll-free helplines and expanded social-security coverage.

The Government said enforcement continues through Central Industrial Relations Machinery inspections, while State governments remain responsible for field-level implementation. It told the House that the Codes place migrant workers “at the centre of labour governance” by ensuring that entitlements, documentation and benefits remain portable across the country, including in regions with high volumes of seasonal and intra-State mobility such as Jammu and Kashmir.