ILO Social Protection Report 2024-26: India’s Coverage Doubles
Why in the news
The ILO’s latest flagship report credited Indian welfare programmes for a sharp jump in the share of people protected, and India’s gain lifted the world average too.
Key facts
- Coverage moved from 24.4% in 2021 to 48.8% in 2024.
- Labour Ministry data: around 920 million (65%) have at least one benefit through central schemes.
- India added to a 5-percentage-point global rise in coverage.
- Roughly 24.8 crore people left multi-dimensional poverty over ten years because of social security measures.
Scheme snapshot
| Scheme | Reported figure |
|---|---|
| Ayushman Bharat (AB-PMJAY) | 39.94 crore cards by 26 March 2025; cover of up to ₹5 lakh per family; 24,810 empanelled hospitals |
| PMGKAY | Free grain for 80.67 crore people (Dec 2024) against a 81.35 crore target |
| eShram | Opened 26 August 2021; 30.68 crore workers by 3 March 2025, of whom 53.68% are women |
| Atal Pension Yojana | Started 9 May 2015 for unorganised workers; works alongside PMJJBY and PMSBY |
About the report
- Published periodically by the International Labour Organization, the UN body for labour rights and social justice.
- The 2024-26 issue adds trend data for the first time and has regional companion volumes, including one for Asia-Pacific.
Data pooling exercise
- Started by the Labour Ministry on 19 March 2025 to merge records of major central schemes for a full picture of coverage.
- Phase 1 covers ten states such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
- More than 200 crore records were matched using encrypted Aadhaar IDs across MGNREGA, EPFO, ESIC, APY and PM POSHAN.
- Working with the ILO, later rounds will bring in housing, food security and other in-kind benefits.
Exam angle
- Report publisher: ILO; edition theme: universal social protection for a just transition.
- eShram builds the National Database of Unorganised Workers (NDUW) and issues a Universal Account Number.
- Nodal ministry for data pooling: Labour and Employment.