The Agnipath scheme, which aims to recruit defence personnel in short-term contracts, has led to country-wide protests in the last week. A key element of the scheme is that there will be no pension or gratuity benefits for these recruits. Given that a majority of regular wage/salaried employees in India already lack social security benefits, this facet of the scheme may deteriorate the quality of jobs further. Importantly, this project comes at a time when the pandemic has further reduced the share of jobs with such benefits. According to the PLFS 2020-21 report, 53.8% of such workers were not eligible for social security benefits, higher than the 49.6% in 2017-18. The decline was much sharper in rural jobs with the share of workers without benefits increasing to 59.1% from 52.5%. Data also show that 64.3% did not have a written job contract and 47.9% were not eligible for paid leave. In 22 States, more than 25% were neither eligible for paid leave and social benefits nor had a written contract.
Vulnerable job share
The table shows the share of regular wage/salaried employees who had no job contracts, were not eligible for paid leave and were not eligible for social security benefits in sectors other than agriculture. The share of workers not eligible for social security benefits increased during the pandemic years. While the share of workers without contracts and paid leave has come down over the years, still the numbers were very high. Hover over the chart to find the exact figure
