National Social Security Board: Centre notifies formation

The Centre has notified the constitution of the National Social Security Board for unorganised, gig and platform workers, Akashvani reported, citing the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment. The Union Labour and Employment Minister will chair the board, whose responsibilities include recommending welfare schemes and monitoring their implementation.

According to Akashvani, the board will include representatives of Central and State Governments, aggregator companies, employers, civil society organisations, workers’ unions, and gig and platform workers’ associations. Aggregators are digital intermediaries, as described in the Press Information Bureau’s explainer on the Code on Social Security, 2020.

The ministry said the board’s mandate was to help address gaps in social security for gig and platform workers alongside traditional unorganised workers, Akashvani reported. The development concerns the body responsible for recommending and overseeing schemes; the broadcaster’s account does not announce a benefit amount or a date for payments to workers.

Recommendations, monitoring and spending review

Akashvani’s account identifies several responsibilities for the board. It will recommend suitable schemes to the Central Government for different groups of unorganised, gig and platform workers, and advise the government on matters arising from administration of the social security code.

The distinction between recommending a scheme and introducing one matters. In the arrangement described by Akashvani, the board makes recommendations to the Centre for framing schemes. Its constitution is therefore an institutional step, rather than an announcement of the terms under which a particular benefit will be paid.

The board’s work also extends beyond preparing proposals. According to Akashvani, it will monitor social welfare schemes administered by the Central Government for these worker groups, review record-keeping at the State level, and examine expenditure from the fund and account.

These functions cover both scheme oversight and the administrative records behind it. The broadcaster also reported that the board would perform other functions assigned by the Central Government.

While Akashvani identified the categories to be represented, its report did not name individual members, participating companies or worker organisations. It also did not specify the board’s first meeting date.

A board within the social security code

The Code on Social Security, 2020 provides the legislative framework for the institution. Section 6 concerns the National Social Security Board and State Unorganised Workers’ Board, according to the statutory text published by India Code.

The code states that its purpose is to consolidate social security laws with the goal of extending protection to employees and workers across organised, unorganised and other sectors. Social security, in this context, includes protections against risks such as illness, disability and loss of income in old age.

A Press Information Bureau explainer dated 22 November 2025 described the code as bringing nine existing social security laws into one framework. It identified a national board to advise the government on formulating and monitoring schemes for unorganised, gig and platform workers as one of the framework’s measures.

The India Code text records that Section 6 was among the provisions brought into force on 21 November 2025 through notification S.O. 5319(E). That commencement date concerns the statutory provision; it is not the date of the board-constitution notification reported by Akashvani.

The ministry subsequently issued the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 through notification G.S.R. 344(E), dated 8 May 2026. The notification states that the rules take effect on publication in the Official Gazette.

According to that notification, draft rules had been made available to the public on 30 December 2025, with 45 days allowed for objections and suggestions. The ministry stated that the Central Government had considered the responses before making the final rules.

Welfare schemes and their funding

The Press Information Bureau’s November 2025 explainer described the code’s provision for gig and platform worker schemes covering life insurance, disability insurance, health, maternity and pension benefits. These were descriptions of the legislative framework, not benefit terms announced in Akashvani’s report on the board.

The same explainer described a Social Security Fund supported by sources including Central and State Government contributions, corporate social responsibility funding and amounts collected through the settlement of offences under the law.

It also set out a proposed national registration system for unorganised, gig and platform workers, involving a national portal and a unique identification number verified through Aadhaar. The bureau said the intended purpose included helping workers retain access to benefits when moving for work.

Those statements describe the government’s plans and intended effects as presented in November 2025. Akashvani’s board report does not specify registration arrangements for a newly announced scheme, its funding allocation or the number of workers who will receive benefits.

An older institution under a different framework

The National Social Security Board name predates the code. The Labour Ministry’s Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Rules, 2009, notified on 24 February 2009, referred to a board constituted under Section 5 of the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008.

The ministry’s 8 May 2026 notification lists those 2009 rules among the rules superseded by the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026, while preserving things done or omitted before supersession. The older rules therefore provide historical context, not a basis for assuming the newly constituted board’s operating procedures.

Akashvani’s report establishes the notified constitution and broad responsibilities of the board, but does not give the constitution notification’s date or number, or a timetable for its first scheme recommendations.