The government is launching a new pension scheme for informal workers

While presenting the interim Budget for 2019-2020, acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced an unprecedented pension scheme for workers in the informal economy- which roughly consitute 81% of India's workforce, according to the International Labour Organisation.

Workers above the age of 60 will now receive a monthly pension of ₹3000. The government has earmarked an allocation of ₹5 billion for the scheme, which has been called Shram Yogi Mandhan.



Around 100 million workers are expected to benefit from the social security scheme.

Workers under the age of 60 will have to pay a premium of around ₹55-100 a month, an amount that will be equally matched by the central government.