India is changing how it counts platform workers after its existing labour survey failed to capture enough of them. From January 2027, the government plans to introduce a separate sampling category for digital platform workers in the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS).
The proposed changes aim to improve coverage of people who earn through digital platforms, including cab drivers and food delivery partners. An additional question will help identify households in which a member has engaged in digital platform work during the specified reference period. The question will be asked in both rural and urban areas.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) announced the proposed changes on October 23, 2026. Information on digital platform workers has been collected experimentally since January 2026, but the existing survey arrangement did not capture an adequate number of these workers.
This distinction matters when looking at where these workers are located. registrations on the e-Shram portal provide a state-wise picture of platform workers who have registered with the government While NITI Aayog’s report offers an estimate of the broader gig workforce. However, these figures do not show the total number of people working through digital platforms in each state. They count those registered on e-Shram, so they should not be treated as a complete measure of the platform workforce.
As of March 10, 2026, Maharashtra had the highest number of platform workers registered on the e-Shram portal, with 1.38 lakh registrations. Uttar Pradesh followed closely with 1.34 lakh, while Bihar recorded 1.12 lakh. West Bengal had 56,236 registered platform workers, followed by Delhi with 50,636.
The move comes as India’s gig economy is expected to grow. They also highlight a challenge: measuring the broader gig workforce is not the same as counting people who work through digital platform. Gig workers and platform workers are not the same Gig workers generally take up work outside a traditional employer-employee arrangement, often on a short-term or task-based basis. Platform workers are a specific group who perform work through digital platforms, such as app-based cab services and food delivery companies. The two groups overlap, but they are not identical.
Not every gig worker necessarily finds work through an app, which means platform-worker registrations cannot be used as a count of the entire gig workforce. A 2022 report by NITI Aayog estimated that India had 68 lakh gig workers in FY20 and projected that the number could reach 2.35 crore by FY30. These figures, however, are estimates and projections rather than a current count of workers.
