Digital Shram Sankalp - Reimagining India's Labour Ecosystem with AI

About

The Ministry of Labour & Employment is one of India’s oldest and most significant ministries, dedicated to safeguarding workers’ rights and promoting their welfare, especially among economically weaker and disadvantaged sections. It strives to ensure fair working conditions, enhance workplace well-being, expand employment opportunities, and strengthen vocational skill development. In line with India’s economic reforms, the Ministry advances social security and worker welfare across organized and unorganized sectors through labour laws covering wages, occupational safety, industrial relations, employment conditions, and social protection, including the implementation of the four Labour Codes. https://www.labour.gov.in/ministry

eShram, launched in August 2021, is India’s first national database of unorganized workers, including migrant, construction, agricultural, domestic, and platform workers. Over 31.82 crore unorganised workers have been registered on eShram Portal. The platform currently integrates 15 social security/welfare schemes. Integrated with platforms such as NCS, PM-SYM, myScheme, and SIDH, eShram connects workers to employment, skilling, and welfare opportunities. Registrations combine Aadhaar-based eKYC with self-declared information, and each worker receives a unique 12-digit Universal Account Number (UAN). Registration is available through self-service digital channels and assisted centres. Its secure data-sharing framework also supports targeted delivery of welfare benefits. https://eshram.gov.in/e-shram-portal

The National Career Service, launched in 2015, is a technology-driven employment platform connecting job seekers, employers, counsellors, and training providers. It offers job matching, career guidance, apprenticeship and internship opportunities, skill development opportunities, and job fair access. It also provides a host of AI services like resume building, skill gap analysis, interview coach etc for job seekers. With data covering more than 3,000 occupations across 53 sectors, NCS enhances employability through transparent and inclusive services. http://betacloud.ncs.gov.in/

The Shram Suvidha Portal 2.0 simplifies labour law compliance through a unified digital interface for registrations, licensing, inspections, and returns. Its upgraded version aligns with the OSH & WC Code, 2020 and Code on Social Security, 2020, enabling streamlined compliance, auto registration, single annual returns, transparent risk-based inspections, and simplified licensing, including a Single All-India Licence for multi-state operations. Together, these initiatives drive inclusive and sustainable growth. https://shramsuvidha.gov.in/

Ideation Hackathon (Ideathon)

To further enhance and utilise eShram, NCS and Shram Suvidha portals at their optimum level, MoLE in collaboration with MyGov envisages to conduct an Ideation Hackathon (Ideathon). The Ideation Hackathon involves coming up with ideas, and methodologies where people with different skill sets, background come together to solve the given challenges/ problem statements. It is expected to provide the creative modern ways to enhance the utility of eShram, NCS and Shram Suvidha portals.

Objective

The broad objective of the proposed hackathon is to engage Young Minds, IT Start-Ups/ Entrepreneurs, IITians, Software Companies to share their innovative ideas around digital solutions for eShram, NCS and Shram Suvidha to enhance their overall functioning and utilization. The proposed solutions/ ideas should be in line with the Ministry's digital modernization roadmap such as: -

Focuses on developing actionable digital products that can seamlessly integrate with NCS, eShram and Shram Suvidha.
Leverages data-driven intelligence to strengthen policy formulation, planning, and targeted delivery.
Enhances the citizen experience for workers, jobseekers, and employers.
Fosters an innovation pipeline to enable continuous improvement of mentioned platforms.
Promotes youth and ecosystem engagement in alignment with Viksit Bharat and Digital India.

Note: It is important to consider data privacy & security while proposing integration/ implementation of the proposed ideas and solutions. The proposed ideas/ solutions should be in accordance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, UIDAI and MeitY guidelines.

Problem Statement

Below are few problem statements written for which Ministry of Labour & Employment is looking to receive modern, innovative and creative ideas through this Ideathon:

Migrant Worker Tracking in eShram

How might we build a consent-based, secure, and privacy preserving migrant tracking capability within eShram that enables location updates, migration heatmaps, predictive movement models, and simplified check in mechanisms to better inform welfare delivery for migrant workers?

Profile Updation

What solutions can effectively motivate and assist workers to regularly update key information (address, mobile number, occupation, skills, etc.) on eShram by leveraging multilingual audio interfaces, chatbots, IVR/SMS workflows, predictive nudges, profile completeness scoring, and gamified engagement?

AI Enabled Interview Preparation & Assessment

How might we create an accessible, mobile friendly AI interview readiness toolkit including mock simulators, voice based practice, resume to job fit scoring, behavioural question generators, and soft skills assessments to support job seekers registered on NCS?

Increasing Outreach of the portals

How to strengthen awareness and outreach initiatives for the portals, while instituting robust monitoring, regulatory, and technological measures to prevent, detect and mitigate fraudulent platforms, ensuring secure and reliable access to employment related services for all citizens.

AI-Driven Smart Inspection System for Labour Code Compliance for Shram Suvidha Portal

How can AI-enabled technologies and automated document-reading tools be utilised to enable intelligent document (PDFs, Scanned pdf/ image, Images) analysis, interpret compliances requirements under new labour codes, automatically flags anomalies, discrepancies, missing fields or non- compliance etc. and send automated alerts to employers and inspectors-cum-facilitator. Solution should also be able to generate a risk-based compliance scorecard for establishments.

Accessibility & Inclusive Technology

How might we design voice-first, icon driven, multilingual, and disability inclusive interfaces along with assistive technologies such as text to speech, speech-to-text and simplified navigation to ensure that eShram, NCS and Shram Suvidha platforms are fully accessible to all workers?

Portal Enhancements & User Experience

How might we design intuitive and intelligent digital onboarding and profile management journeys for eShram, NCS and Shram Suvidha that simplify registration, enable one click eligibility checks for jobs and schemes, and support rapid profile updates to significantly improve user experience across platforms?

Data Quality Enhancement

How can AI/ML driven tools be developed to detect and correct data imprecisions such as incorrect occupation codes, invalid contact numbers, and inter database inconsistencies along with user friendly correction mechanisms and backend validation engines to significantly enhance data integrity?

Data Driven Dashboards

How can advanced analytics and visualization tools be developed to deliver real time insights such as migration patterns, skill cluster distributions, scheme uptake, district level labour risks, and predictive workforce trends - to support evidence based planning and policy decisions?

Course & Skill Recommendation Engines

How can skill gap analysis and AI powered recommendation systems be developed using NCS profile and vacancy data to suggest relevant courses, wage uplift pathways, region specific job roles, government funded training opportunities, and track training to placement outcomes?

Employer Discovery & Hiring Intelligence

What digital tools can help employers identify verified and job ready talent using trust markers (EPFO/ESIC), skill availability heatmaps, wage benchmarking, candidate readiness scoring, and digital support for large scale hiring drives and job fairs?

Transforming National Career Service into a Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for Employment and Livelihood Services

How can the NCS be developed as a citizen-centric Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) that provides seamless access to employment, skilling, career counselling, internships, apprenticeships, and livelihood opportunities by enabling secure and interoperable integration with Government platforms, employers, training providers, and other ecosystem stakeholders?

Expectation from Participants

Participants are expected to understand the problem statement and provide potential solutions/ innovative ideas to these problems. They are expected to prepare and submitted solutions/ ideas in Power Point presentation, Word Document and/or PDF format (not more than 500 words for each problem statement) within prescribed file size limit.

Timelines

Event	Date	Remarks
Start Date	5th August 2026	Official launch of this Ideathon on the Innovate India Platform
End Date	5th September 2026	Individuals/ Teams to register and submit their ideas for selected problem statement(s) (One or Multiple)

Evaluation/Selection Criteria for Ideathon Solutions

The Ministry of Labour & Employment will constitute an Evaluation/Selection Committee for shortlisting of top ideas under the said activity. The evaluation/ selection committee will submit a report to the Ministy basis on the below listed selection criteria. Top 5 ideas will be selected and awarded.

#	Criteria	Description
1	Relevance to Problem Statement	Alignment with the defined challenge area (eShram/NCS/Shram Suvidha). Clear understanding of worker-centric, employer-centric, or system-centric needs.
2	Innovation & Originality	Novelty of the idea and creativity in addressing the identified problem. Use of emerging technologies (AI/ML, analytics, accessibility tools, multilingual systems, etc.) where appropriate. Effectiveness of the solution to address identified pain points and enhance the overall solution impact.
3	Feasibility & Implementability	Practicality of executing the proposed solution within existing MoLE digital ecosystems. Technical viability, scalability, enhancement & expansion, clarity of implementation steps and futuristic orientation.
4	Impact Potential	Potential to improve worker welfare, employer efficiency, policy intelligence, or system performance. Expected outcomes in terms of user adoption, service delivery enhancement, and measurable improvements.
5	User Experience & Accessibility	Ease of use for workers, jobseekers, employers, and administrators. Inclusion of multilingual, disability-friendly, and low-tech (IVR/SMS) options.
6	Data Security & Privacy	Compliance with government data-protection principles. Adequate safeguards for handling sensitive worker information, especially for migrant or vulnerable groups.
7	Sustainability & Long-Term Value	Long-term operational sustainability, maintenance requirements, and cost-effectiveness. Ability to evolve with future workforce trends, policy needs, and technological advancements.
8	Clarity of Presentation	Quality of documentation, articulation of the solution, and structured demonstration. Ability to communicate problem understanding, solution design, and expected impact clearly.

Reward & Recognition

Top 5 best ideas from teams/individuals for each problem statement will be selected as winner. From which 1st, 2nd and 3rd selected ideas will be rewarded with a cash prize of Rs. 50,000/-, 40,000/- and 30,000/- respectively and remaining 2 selected ideas will be rewarded with a cash prize of Rs. 10,000/- each from Ministry of Labour & Employment.
All valid participants will receive a digital Certificate of Participation from Ministry of Labour & Employment.
The top 5 winning teams/individuals may be invited to present their detailed ideas before the senior officers of MoLE.
Selected ideas may be considered for pilot implementation and further development by the Ministry, with due credit to the participants.

Terms & Conditions

Key Terms and conditions for the hackathon are as under; all participants are to abide by these terms and conditions.

This ideation hackathon (Ideathon) is free for all interested participants and is open to young minds, IT startups, entrepreneurs, IITians, and software companies across India.
Participants must ensure that their MyGov profile is complete and accurate; incomplete profiles or applications will not be considered.
Each participant (Individual/Team/IT startups/Entrepreneurs/Software companies) can submit solutions for multiple problem statements from the list; however, only one idea per problem statement is allowed. Further, only one submission per individual or team will be shortlisted for the next stage. All submissions must be complete, valid, original, and must not infringe upon any third-party intellectual property rights.
Each team can have one designated team leader and up to three additional members only. All communication related to this Ideathon will be handled through the team leader. Any change in team composition is not allowed.
Participants must ensure that the profile owner and participant are the same; any mismatch will lead to disqualification. Non-conformity with guidelines, incomplete submissions, or invalid entries will also result in disqualification.
All submitted entries shall become the intellectual property of the Ministry of Labour & Employment (MoLE). The Ministry reserves the right to use the submitted ideas with due credit to participants, and participants shall not claim any ownership or rights over them in the future.
Prize money will be awarded by the Ministry of Labour & Employment.
Participants must maintain confidentiality of all communication and information related to this hackathon and must not use it for any other purpose.
Participants are required to maintain proper documentation of their ideas. The word limit for each idea submission is a maximum of 500 words.
Only valid submissions will be evaluated. The Evaluation Committee may invite shortlisted teams or individuals to present their ideas and may require identity proof from selected winners.
The Ministry of Labour & Employment (MoLE) reserves the right to accept or reject any submission without assigning any reason. The Evaluation Committee’s decision shall be final and binding in all matters, including unforeseen situations, disputes, or exceptions.
The Organizing Committee/ MoLE reserves the right to amend, modify, or cancel any part of the hackathon, including guidelines and evaluation criteria, at any time.
Any travel or miscellaneous expenses incurred during participation will not be reimbursed by the Ministry of Labour & Employment or Organizing Committee.

By submitting an entry, participants agree to abide by all the terms and conditions mentioned above.