Budget 2025: FM announces ID cards for gig workers, UPI credit cards for street vendors

In her Budget 2025 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced key initiatives aimed at providing social security and welfare for gig workers.

These workers, many of whom operate on online platforms, will be given identity cards and access to healthcare through a new social security scheme.

The government also plans to invest in street vendors, online workers, and urban workers as part of its broader social welfare efforts. Gig workers on online platforms will be registered on the e-Shram portal as part of the initiative, which will also see the revamping of the PM SVANidhi scheme.

This will include enhanced loans from banks, UPI-linked credit cards with a Rs 30,000 limit, and support for capacity building.

"...Gig workers of online platforms provide great dynamism to the 'New Age' services economy. Recognising their contribution, our government will arrange for their identity cards and registration on the e-Shram portal," she said.

Such workers will be provided health care facilities under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) and this measure is likely to assist nearly one crore workers, Sitharaman added.

A committee with representatives from various stakeholders has been formed to develop a framework for providing gig and platform workers with social security and welfare benefits. These benefits will cover life and disability insurance, accident insurance, health and maternity benefits, and old-age protection.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment has already issued advisories encouraging aggregators to register on the e-Shram portal.

In her presentation, the finance minister also said that by next year, 10,000 seats will be added in medical colleges and hospitals while another 75,000 seats will be added in the next five years.

The government will also facilitate the setting up of daycare cancer centres in all district hospitals in the next three years.

Besides, the infrastructure ministries will come up with a 3-year pipeline of projects to be implemented in PPP (public-private partnership) mode, Sitharaman said.

Sitharaman emphasized that the Budget 2025 continues the government's drive to promote inclusive growth, private sector investment, and boost the purchasing power of the middle class.

She presented her eighth budget, which also outlined key fiscal policies, revenue proposals, and taxation reforms. According to the Economic Survey 2024-25, India's economy is expected to grow by 6.3-6.8 percent in the upcoming financial year.

To realize the vision of "Viksit Bharat," the survey recommended a growth rate of 8 percent for the next decade or two, especially as India's growth slowed in the first half of the current fiscal year.