India has already taken a decisive step in expanding the scope of social security with the labour codes. Until recently, gig workers operated outside the formal social security framework. They remained ineligible for basic benefits such as insurance, provident fund or pension as they did not fit within the traditional employer-employee relationship. The codes have brought in a regulatory shift. The country has realigned its legal framework by formally recognising gig and platform workers. The thinking has been done, the regulatory intent has been established and the legal plumbing has been laid. It is time for high velocity execution. The road ahead is not about another big-bang regulatory reform. It is about architecting interconnected digital systems that are simple, frictionless and usable for workers at the bottom of the pyramid.
The gig economy has been a product of India’s rapid digital transformation. A worker can log in, accept a task, complete it and receive payment, all through a single smart device. Work is flexible, fast and digitally enabled. If work has become so seamless, I argue that benefits should too. The current framework already recognises an important truth that workers today are mobile, multi-engaged and geographically fluid. A single individual may work across multiple platforms, sectors and even states within a year. A gig worker should not have to start from scratch every time they switch platforms or locations. Their social security should travel with them, just like their work does. It should be easy to access, track and readily available wherever they go. This makes portability not just a feature but a necessity. To fully realise this vision, India needs to build a set of digital rails that enable seamless, real-time exchange of information between workers, platforms, aggregators and the government. At the heart of this system is the idea that benefits should follow the worker, not the other way round.
India’s strength in public policy has increasingly come from combining regulatory simplification with digital execution. Over the past decade, the country has demonstrated how population-scale systems can be built using interoperable, identity-linked platforms. This approach has transformed how services are delivered, making them faster, more transparent and inclusive. Social security now stands at the cusp of a similar transformation.
The country’s regulators have often relied on building more and more portals as an answer to digitisation. In many cases, digital translation, not true digital transformation, has been the path of least resistance. This has led to the creation of data silos, where documents, often non-machine-readable, continue to be the primary medium of information exchange. Regulatory systems built on API-enabled data exchange are still relatively rare. This is where the next phase of reform must focus, and it requires three foundational capabilities.
An interconnected system that enables seamless, real-time data exchange, building on standardised frameworks, especially since platforms already generate high-frequency data on tasks, earnings, and worker participation. If this data can be shared through secure, API-based systems using common standards, it can form the basis for automated contribution calculations and benefit eligibility. Workers must remain at the centre of the system. Any sharing of data across platforms or with government systems should be driven by explicit, revocable consent. This will not only build trust but also align with India’s broader digital governance principles. Social security should not remain an abstract entitlement. Workers should be able to see, on a single interface, their contributions, benefits and eligibility status, aggregated across all platforms they engage with. This will transform compliance from a backend process into a visible, user-centric experience.
This is also where technology can make a real difference at the last mile. With the integration of AI, these systems can become far more worker-friendly. Imagine an interface that is multilingual, where a worker can access information in their preferred language or even use voice commands instead of typing. Benefits can be made easy to search, sort and filter, helping workers quickly understand what they are eligible for and how to access it. Instead of navigating complex systems, the experience can feel as simple as using any other app on their phone.
India is uniquely positioned to achieve this. The building blocks are already in place, digital identity systems, scalable payment infrastructure and a growing ecosystem of interoperable platforms. Together, these form the backbone of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure. This is the same foundation that has quietly transformed everyday life, making services accessible, reliable and near-instant at a population scale. Social security can now build on this momentum
Such a system would significantly reduce friction in enrolment, eliminate duplication across platforms and ensure that benefits remain portable across states. It would also simplify compliance for businesses by shifting from periodic reporting to automated, system-driven processes. Most importantly, it would bring dignity and certainty to millions of workers by making social security predictable and accessible. India’s reform journey has often followed a clear pattern- first, define the policy and then build the infrastructure that brings it to life. In the case of social security, that second step is now within reach.
