News: The Ministry of Labour and Employment released the draft National Labour & Employment Policy – Shram Shakti Niti 2025 for public consultation.
About Draft National Labour & Employment Policy — Shram Shakti Niti 2025
- The draft presents a renewed vision for a fair, inclusive, and future-ready world of work aligned with the national aspiration of Viksit Bharat @2047.
- It emphasises cooperative federalism, evidence-based policymaking, digital transparency, and coordinated action among the Centre, States, industry, and social partners.
- Released by: Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India.
- Inspired by: India’s civilisational ethos of śrama dharma’ – the dignity and moral value of work.
- Aim : To build a balanced, inclusive, and future-ready labour and employment ecosystem that protects workers, boosts productivity, and supports sustainable enterprise-led livelihoods.
- Phased implementation
- Phase I (2025–27) focuses on institutional setup and social-security integration.
- Phase II (2027–30) completes the nationwide rollout of universal social security accounts, introduces skill-credit systems, and establishes district-level Employment Facilitation Cells.
- Phase III (beyond 2030) brings paperless governance, predictive analytics, and continuous policy renewal.
- Key Highlights
- National Career Service (NCS) as India’s Digital Public Infrastructure for Employment with open APIs, multilingual access, credential verification, skill alignment, and AI-driven innovation reaching Tier-II/III cities, rural districts, and MSME clusters.
- Creation of a universal account by integrating Employees Provident Fund Organisation, Employees State Insurance Corporation, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, e-SHRAM, State welfare boards, and NCS into a unified Labour Stack.
- Implementation of the Occupational Safety and Health Code with risk-based inspections and gender-sensitive standards; AI-enabled safety systems; near-zero workplace fatalities as an outcome.
- Increase women’s labour-force participation to 35% by 2030 and expand entrepreneurship and career guidance initiatives for youth.
- Promotion of green jobs and just-transition pathways; creation of millions of green and decent jobs.
- MSME enablement: Single-window digital compliance with self-certification and simplified returns for MSMEs; sharp reduction in informal jobs through digital compliance.
- Progress will be tracked through real-time dashboards, the Labour & Employment Policy Evaluation Index (LPEI) to benchmark States, an Annual National Labour Report to Parliament, and independent third-party reviews.
