Extending PM-JAY to Gig and Platform Workers is a significant step towards creating a Resilient Workforce in India
Author: Dr. Shahnawaz Khan and Prakash Gupta
The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman announced the extension of health benefits offered through Pradhan Mantri -Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) to Gig and Platform Workers in India in her budget speech. This marks a significant step towards creating inclusive social protection policies in India. To meet this objective, the budget estimate for PMJAY 2025–26 has been increased to INR 9406 crores from INR 7300 crores in last year.
As noted in the Economic Survey 2024–25, digital platforms are transforming work in India, driven by high smartphone adoption, high penetration of affordable internet.. They offer flexibility of working hours, and reduce entry barriers for benefiting disadvantaged groups like women. According to NITI Aayog, India accounted for 8% of global digital platforms in 2021, with 7.7 million platform workers, projected to reach 23.3 million by 2030. The youth participation (ages 16–23) in the gig economy grew more than 8 times from 2019 to 2022, reflecting its growing appeal in the young workforce. To sustain this growth and unlock the platform economy’s full potential, it is vital to ensure worker well-being through universal health coverage and comprehensive social protection.
OMI Foundation’s study, “Social Protection in India’s Platform Economy: Unpacking Supply Dynamics,” highlights that aggregators also recognise the importance of social protection for platform workers and have introduced measures such as accident and medical benefits such as, free telemedicine consultations, and discounted diagnostics. However, the rising cost of health insurance premiums in India — an increase of 12–15% annually between 2021 and 2023 — poses a significant challenge for aggregators to provide comprehensive health protection on their own except for a few cases.
Ayushmann Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), is the world’s largest publicly funded health insurance scheme that provides extensive healthcare coverage. PM-JAY offers cashless coverage of up to INR 5,00,000 per family annually for secondary and tertiary care. The coverage includes medical examinations, treatment, pre-hospitalisation, medicines, intensive care, diagnostics, implants, accommodation, food, and post-hospitalisation care for up to 15 days. There are no restrictions on family size, age, or gender, and pre-existing conditions are covered from day one. However,
certain exclusionary criteria — such as ownership of assets like built houses, vehicles, refrigerators, landline phones, and an income cap of Rs 10,000 — have excluded gig and platform workers from availing the benefits of the scheme so far. We hope that the budget announcement will be followed by pro-active measures from the government to remove these barriers to operationalise the enrollment of workers to PM-JAY.
Significance of providing health benefits to gig and platform workers The Economic Survey 2023–24 highlights the significant impact of PM-JAY in making healthcare more affordable, reducing treatment costs by 1.5 to 2 times compared to market rates, and saving over INR 1.25 lakh crore in Out-of-Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) for vulnerable families. This financial relief enhances savings and economic resilience.
Furthermore, the survey showed that PMJAY’s implementation has contributed to a 3.7 to 4.0 percentage point reduction in Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in microfinance loans, demonstrating broader economic benefits. The systematic exclusion of gig and platform workers earlier had denied them from both essential health protection and the wider financial benefits.
The Government of India has linked the PM-JAY scheme with the e-Shram portal registration. The Government of India must ensure the inclusion of platform workers in the PM-JAY scheme by removing exclusionary criteria and enabling access through e-Shram registration. The Code on Social Security (CoSS) 2020 provides for the establishment of a welfare fund to finance social security schemes for platform workers. This fund is to be financed through government grants, welfare fees from aggregators, contributions from workers, and other sources.
Further operationalisation of CoSS 2020 would allow the government to leverage the welfare fund to cover the additional costs involved in extending PM-JAY, and other social security benefits to platform workers. This approach would also strengthen the long-term viability of social protection programs for platform workers. As a contingency, the government could classify platform workers as a special category and extend PM-JAY coverage similar to ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, and helpers. These measures would ensure equitable access to health protection and foster long-term socio-economic benefits.
As highlighted by several studies, higher potential for income generation, and flexibility of working hours has been the major motivation for the workers to join platform work. The sustainability of platform work depends on the well-being and resilience of its
workforce, making provisions to achieve universal health coverage and comprehensive social protections for platform workers is one of the key ways of achieving this.
