Daily Current Affairs for UPSC : 9 Oct 2025/What is Shram Shakti Niti 2025?

The Shram Shakti Niti 2025, India’s draft National Labour and Employment Policy, was released recently by the Ministry of Labour and Employment for public consultation until October 27, 2025.

It aims to create a fair, inclusive, and future-ready labour ecosystem, it aligns with the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047 ,That is Rooted in the ethos of śrama dharma (dignity of labour), the policy seeks to balance workers’ welfare with enterprise growth to foster sustainable livelihoods.

Key Features of Shram Shakti Niti 2025:

Universal and Portable Social Security:

• Objective: Ensure seamless access to social security for all workers, especially in the informal sector.
• Mechanism: Create a universal account by integrating:

• • Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
  • Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).
  • Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).
  • e-SHRAM portal.
  • State Welfare Boards.

• Impact: Enables portability of benefits across jobs and regions, ensuring continuity for migrant and gig workers.

Occupational Safety and Health Reforms:
• Implementation: Complete roll-out of the Occupational Safety and Health Code.
• Key Actions:
• Deploy risk-based inspections to identify and treat hazards in the workplace.
• Develop gender-sensitive and gender-responsive standards to ensure that workplaces are safe for women.
• Develop workplace safety systems that use AI to predict and prevent workplace accidents.
• Target: To achieve near-zero workplace fatalities through pro-active measures, and mutually beneficial transition paths for work in sectors with high-risk occupational injury.
Increasing Women’s Participation and Working with Youth:
Women’s Workforce:
• Target: Increase women’s labour force participation to 35% by 2030.
• Actions: Gender-responsive policies, safe workplaces and support for women entrepreneurs.
Youth Empowerment:
• Expand career development and entrepreneurial programming.
• Align skill development programs and launch new credit systems to improve employability.
Digital Compliance and Green Jobs:
• Digital compliance:
• Launch a one-window service digitally to self-certify and comply, while reducing compliance burden on MSMEs.
• Use digital compliance tools to minimise informal work.
• Green Jobs:
• Support the creation of millions of green and decent jobs in renewable energy, AI, robotics and adaptation to climate.
• Support pathways that support just transition for workers moving from traditional industries to sustainable industries.

Unified National Labour Ecosystem:
• Vision: Establish an ecosystem enabling a “One Nation Integrated Workforce.”
• Tools:
• Develop labour data architecture nationally that supports inter-ministerial coherence and facilitates transparent monitoring.
• Leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) based labour governance for efficiency and accountability for all states.
Implementation Roadmap: This policy will be implemented in three phases:
• Phase I (2025 – 27):
• Establish institutional frameworks.
• Converge social security schemes in the form of universal accounts.
• Phase II (2027 – 30):
• Implement a national roll-out of universal social security accounts.
• Establish a skill-credit system and Employment Facilitation Cells in all districts.
• Phase III (2030 onwards):
• Transition to paperless governance and leverage predictive analytics.
• Continued renewal of the policy for flexibility.
Accountability and Monitoring:
• Mechanisms:
• Establish real-time dashboards to monitor the progress of the policy.
• Develop a Labour & Employment Policy Evaluation Index (LPEI) for benchmarking a states performance.
• Produce an Annual National Labour Report to Parliament for transparency.
• Focus: Ensuring there are measurable outcomes and accountability at all levels.
What will be its Outcomes?
• Universal registration for workers and portable social security for all workers.
• Workplace fatalities will be reduced to nearly zero as a result of improved safeguards.
• Female participation in the labour force will increase to 35% in total by 2030.
• The number of informal jobs will experience a shrinking trend, thus reported jobs will observe improvements in compliance with digital notifications.
• Will develop decent and green jobs, at a rate of millions, that align with global sustainability goals.
• Will execute the role of effective governance across all states with the assistance of AI.
• Will create a system that is fully converged for employing individuals “One Nation Integrated Workforce.”