Labour ministry working on a National Employment Policy

With the government’s focus on job creation and employment in the country’s workforce, the Ministry of Labor and Employment is now working on the National Employment policy with the aim of creating an employment ecosystem that ensures protection, productivity and engagement of every worker.

The broad objectives will be universal and mobile social security, occupational safety and health, skill and employment linkages, easy and standardized compliance, technology and green transitions and empowerment of women and youth.

For this purpose, the Ministry of Labor has issued a draft National Labor and Employment Policy called Shram Shakti Niti 2025.

Shram Shakti Niti 2025 will respond to these changes through a unified framework that integrates social protection, skill, occupational safety and technology-led governance. It also repositions the citizen to the Ministry of Labor as an employment facilitator, enabling the convergence of workers, employers and training institutions through reliable systems.

The National Career Services (NCS) platform will serve as India’s digital public infrastructure for recruitment, enabling transparent and comprehensive job matching, credential verification, and skills alignment.

“The policy also focuses on comprehensive emphasis on universal social security, occupational safety and health, empowerment of women and youth, creation of green and technology jobs,” an official statement said. By integrating key national databases such as EPFO, ESIC, E-Shram and NCS into a unified labor stack, the policy envisions a comprehensive and interoperable digital ecosystem that supports lifelong learning, social protection, and income security.

The ministry has now requested comments on the draft policy from stakeholders and experts by October 27.

The draft policy also aims to create a three-tier implementation structure including the National Labor and Employment Policy Implementation Council, which will be the apex body between the ministry headed by the Labor and Employment Secretary at the Centre, state labor functions to ensure implementation and coordination and labor resource centers in the province.