e-Shram card (eShram UAN card): how to register, log in and download it

The e-Shram card is a free card with a 12-digit Universal Account Number (UAN) that the Ministry of Labour and Employment issues to unorganised workers who register on eshram.gov.in. Any worker aged 16 or more who is not an active member of the EPFO or ESIC can register with an Aadhaar number and the mobile number linked to it. There is no income limit and no fee, and the card never expires. The card itself pays no money. It is the key to the schemes linked to the portal, such as the ₹3,000-a-month PM-SYM pension, accident and life insurance, and Ayushman Bharat. The portal’s dashboard showed 32,01,98,004 registrations (32.02 crore) on 22 October 2026.

What is the e-Shram card?

e-Shram is the National Database of Unorganised Workers. The Ministry of Labour and Employment launched the portal on 26 August 2021 to register people who work outside formal employment: farm labourers, construction and domestic workers, street vendors, home-based and self-employed workers, and gig and platform workers. Each person who registers gets a Universal Account Number (UAN), a permanent 12-digit number printed on the e-Shram card, also called the UAN card.

Registration runs on Aadhaar eKYC. The name, gender, date of birth, permanent address and photograph come straight from UIDAI, which the Ministry says keeps out duplicate and fraudulent entries. Since 21 October 2024 the portal has also been a “One-Stop-Solution”. After logging in with the UAN, a worker can see the welfare schemes they are eligible for, apply, and track the ones they are enrolled in. An eShram mobile app followed on 24 February 2025.

Who can register: e-Shram eligibility

The portal defines an unorganised worker as anyone who is a home-based worker, a self-employed worker, or a wage worker in the unorganised sector, and who is not a member of the ESIC or the EPFO. The unorganised sector is establishments with fewer than 10 workers. In practice the test comes down to two questions on the registration form, plus your age:

• Age: at least 16 at the time of registration. The current form and FAQ give no upper age limit. Older guides give a range of 16 to 59; the portal no longer states one.
• Not an active EPFO member: if PF is deducted from your salary, you are in the organised sector.
• Not an active ESIC member: the same applies if ESI is deducted from your pay.
• No income test: the FAQ says there are no income criteria. You do not have to prove your date of birth or income, and no educational qualification is needed.

Agricultural labourers and landless farmers can register. So can gig and platform workers: the registration page asks anyone working with Ola, Uber, Amazon, Flipkart and similar apps to register or update their details. A worker who later moves to a job in the organised sector becomes entitled only to the benefits of organised-sector workers. Use the checker below for your own case:

e-Shram card registration: step by step

Registration is free on the portal and at every registration centre. The FAQ says workers do not have to pay any charges to any registering entity. You need your Aadhaar number and the mobile phone linked to it.

1. Open the self-registration page at register.eshram.gov.in, from the “Register on eShram” button on eshram.gov.in. Platform workers have their own “Platform Worker Registration” button.
2. Enter your mobile number (the Aadhaar-linked one is preferred) and the captcha. Answer the two questions, “Are you an active member of EPFO?” and “of ESIC?”, then select Send OTP.
3. Enter the OTP, then your Aadhaar number, and complete Aadhaar eKYC. Your name, gender, date of birth, permanent address and photo are filled in from UIDAI.
4. Add the rest: current address, occupation (picked from the National Classification of Occupations), education, skills and bank account.
5. Submit. The portal assigns your UAN and issues the e-Shram (UAN) card, which you can download as shown below.

No phone linked to Aadhaar? Go to a Common Service Centre or State Sewa Kendra and register with your fingerprint (biometric authentication). Take only your Aadhaar number and mobile; no documents are collected. The CSC locator (locator.csccloud.in) finds the nearest centre. Most workers use one: 18.10 crore of the 32.02 crore registrations (56.5%) came through CSCs, against 13.32 crore self-registrations.

e-Shram card download (UAN card)

1. Open register.eshram.gov.in and choose “Already registered? Login”.
2. Enter your 12-digit UAN in the three boxes, your date of birth and the captcha, and select Generate OTP.
3. Enter the OTP sent to your registered mobile. Your profile page opens.
4. Select “Download UAN Card” and save the PDF.

Forgot your UAN? Use the Aadhaar route instead. On eshram.gov.in, the “Already registered” option to update your profile using Aadhaar logs you in with your Aadhaar-linked mobile and an OTP. According to the FAQ, the page you reach after logging in shows your name, your UAN and the Download UAN Card option. If that mobile is no longer yours, a CSC can log you in by fingerprint and change it.

The e-Shram UAN is not the UAN of an EPF account, although both have 12 digits. One is for unorganised workers and the other for PF members, and an active PF member cannot register on e-Shram.

e-Shram card benefits

The card is not a payment scheme. The portal’s FAQ describes e-Shram as a database that will be used to deliver social security benefits, and to help eligible workers in emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. What it gives you is access: with the UAN you can apply for linked schemes from one place. Fifteen schemes of different ministries were integrated with it by 3 August 2026, according to the Ministry’s reply in the Lok Sabha that day. They include:

• Insurance: Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (accident cover of ₹2 lakh for a premium of ₹20 a year) and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (life cover of ₹2 lakh for ₹436 a year).
• Health: Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY.
• Pension: PM Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (PM-SYM), below.
• Housing and credit: PM Awas Yojana (rural and urban) and PM SVANidhi loans for street vendors.
• Food and income support: One Nation One Ration Card, PM-KISAN, PM Matru Vandana Yojana and the rural employment scheme VB-G RAM G.
• Jobs and skills: links to the National Career Service and the Skill India Digital Hub.

Each scheme keeps its own eligibility rules and is run by its own ministry; e-Shram is the window, not the paymaster. The Ministry also shares registration data with state governments so that they can extend their own schemes to registered workers.

PM-SYM: the ₹3,000-a-month pension through e-Shram

Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan is the scheme behind the “pension of ₹3,000 a month” link on the e-Shram home page. It is voluntary and contributory: you pay a fixed amount every month until you turn 60, the Central Government pays the same amount, and from 60 you get a minimum assured pension of ₹3,000 a month. If you die after the pension starts, your spouse gets half of it as family pension. To join you must:

• be 18 to 40 years old when you join;
• earn ₹15,000 a month or less;
• not be covered by NPS, ESIC or EPFO; and
• not pay income tax.

The contribution depends only on your age when you join, and is debited automatically each month from a savings or Jan Dhan account. Someone joining at 29 pays ₹100 a month for 31 years, ₹37,200 in all, and the government puts in the same. Joining at 18 costs ₹55 a month; joining at 40, ₹200:

Enrol at a CSC with your Aadhaar and bank passbook, on maandhan.in, or from the scheme list after logging in to e-Shram. If you stop within 10 years you get back your own contributions with savings-bank interest. After 10 years, but before 60, you get your contributions with the interest the fund actually earned, or savings-bank interest if that is higher. Missed payments can be regularised by paying the dues with any penalty.

e-Shram for gig and platform workers

Gig and platform workers, the delivery riders, drivers and others who find work through apps, register on e-Shram like any other unorganised worker, through the “Platform Worker” option. Their position changed on 21 November 2025, when the four Labour Codes took effect. The Code on Social Security, 2020 defines gig work, platform work and aggregators for the first time. It requires aggregators to contribute 1 to 2% of their annual turnover, capped at 5% of what they pay these workers, to a fund for their social security. According to the Government, the Aadhaar-linked UAN makes these benefits portable across states and platforms.

The Budget for 2025-26 announced Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY health cover for platform workers registered on e-Shram, and PM-JAY is now among the integrated schemes. Aggregators also have to put their workers on the portal: a Ministry notification of 1 June 2026, according to SCC Times, asked them to complete onboarding and data integration by 21 June 2026. If you work through an app, register yourself as well. The UAN is yours and stays with you when you change platforms.

e-Shram registrations by state and occupation

The portal’s public dashboard showed 32,01,98,004 registrations on 22 October 2026, with 11,987 added the day before. Women are 54.34% of registrants. 55.27% are aged 18 to 40, 24.13% are 40 to 50 and 20.49% are over 50. Agriculture accounts for 51.4% of all registrations.

Is there money in the e-Shram card?

No. The card holds no balance, and registering does not start any monthly payment, so there is no “e-Shram card balance” to check. Money from a linked scheme, such as a PM-KISAN instalment or a state’s assistance, goes into your bank account under that scheme. Check it with your bank or on that scheme’s own portal. No central scheme pays card holders a fixed amount every month for registering, whatever forwarded messages promise. The fact-checker Factly rated a claim of a ₹5,000 pension for registering false. The ₹3,000 pension is PM-SYM, which needs years of contributions and starts only at 60.

• Register only on eshram.gov.in, register.eshram.gov.in, the official eShram app, UMANG or at a CSC.
• Never pay for registration, and never share an OTP or your bank details with a caller who says they will “activate” your card.
• Complaints go to the helpline 14434 or the grievance portal at gms.eshram.gov.in.

Validity, renewal and updating your details

The e-Shram card never expires and never needs renewing. Keep your details current, though: after logging in you can change your mobile number, current address, occupation, education, skills and bank account, or a CSC can do it for you. The photo comes from Aadhaar and cannot be changed on e-Shram. If you update it in Aadhaar, it appears after you redo Aadhaar eKYC on the portal. There is no last date to register; the portal is open all the time.

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