India’s labour reform story has entered a decisive new phase. With the government now enforcing the four consolidated labour codes, the country has moved from debating change to implementing one of the most significant workforce overhauls since Independence.
These codes replace 29 older laws and aim to simplify compliance, ensure minimum wages for all workers, and extend social security to include gig and platform workers. They also introduce provisions such as appointment letters for every employee, gratuity for fixed-term workers after a year, free annual health check-ups for workers above 40, and clearer safety norms.
Industry bodies have welcomed the move as a ‘historic milestone’ that modernises India’s labour framework, aligns it with global standards and strengthens the foundation for productivity and job creation. The reforms have also drawn international attention.
By implementing the codes, India has shifted the labour reform debate into a new context. The unified architecture now allows the country to tackle a deeper challenge: shaping the future of work so that growth, technology, and climate transitions lead to productive, protected, and dignified livelihoods for all.
Over the last decade, India has added millions of jobs and reduced unemployment, especially after the pandemic. Yet much of this employment remains informal, low-paid, and vulnerable. Most workers still lack written contracts, social security, or predictable incomes, particularly in small enterprises and informal services.
The new labour codes offer an opportunity to move beyond headline job numbers and focus on the ‘quality of work’ — advocated by the ILO and Indian researchers. This means assessing whether workers receive the statutory floor wage, enjoy stable employment, are covered by social security, work reasonable hours under safe conditions, and have access to grievance redress and representation.
Going forward, the emerging labour architecture could be used to regularly publish ‘quality of work dashboards’ at national and state levels, enabling evidence-based policy conversations.
India’s labour market is no longer divided neatly into formal and informal segments. Workers move along a continuum that includes self-employment, casual work, fixed-term contracts, platform-mediated tasks, and traditional wages.
For the first time, the new codes formally recognise gig and platform work, opening space for appropriate social protection frameworks in line with international thinking.
By consolidating definitions and clarifying responsibilities, the codes create a common language for policymakers, firms, and workers to discuss this continuum. Over time, this can help raise the floor of protections across all work arrangements, including the ‘missing middle’ of India’s small and medium enterprises, without disrupting entrepreneurial dynamism.
The next frontier
A key aspect of the reforms is the Code on Social Security, which expands coverage of pensions, insurance, and other benefits to include gig workers and inter-state migrant workers.
This aligns with global trends. The World Economic Forum, the ILO, and others have noted that as technology reshapes jobs and as economies face climate-related shocks, societies will need universal and portable social protection — entitlements that follow workers across sectors, locations, and employment types.
India’s new framework is well positioned to move in this direction. As rules and schemes are notified, there is scope for three initiatives: strengthening contributory and tax-funded schemes so no worker is left outside a minimum social protection floor; using digital platforms such as registration portals and portable benefit accounts to ease access, especially for informal, gig and migrant workers, and; encouraging co-contributions from employers, platforms, and workers to support competitiveness while expanding coverage.
Rather than treating social security purely as a safety net, India can increasingly view it as a foundation that enables workers to take risks, invest in skills, and move to more productive roles.
The WEF’s Future of Jobs Report estimates a large share of the global workforce will need reskilling or upskilling by 2030. India’s experience shows that while services and technology-intensive sectors have powered growth, access to the skills needed to join them remains uneven.
The NITI Aayog has highlighted the job-creating potential of sectors such as tourism, logistics, healthcare, education, and modern business services, if productivity and skill levels rise. The labour codes have come when these sectors are poised for expansion.
Although the codes focus on wages, social security, safety, and industrial relations, they sit alongside a range of skilling initiatives: from ITI reforms to apprenticeship schemes to industry-led academies. Over time, India can integrate these into a lifelong learning ecosystem: workers accessing modular, stackable training across their careers, employers investing in continuous upskilling, and public programmes and CSR efforts targeting youth and vulnerable workers.
Labour is a concurrent subject, and as the codes are implemented, states will have scope for innovation within the broad national framework.
The codes include provisions to boost women’s participation, such as enabling night shifts with safeguards, and mandating equal pay. Combined with investments in childcare, safe transport, and targeted skilling, these measures could help more women turn educational gains into sustained labour-force participation.
Social dialogue among government, employers, and workers will remain vital. By consolidating laws into a cleaner, modern structure, the codes make such dialogue easier, ensuring implementation aligns with the twin goals of competitiveness and decent work.
India has taken a major step towards a simpler, more coherent, and future-oriented labour regime. A modern framework is now in place — one that recognises new forms of work, supports investment, and extends protections more widely.
The challenge is to use this new framework to improve the quality of work, to expand social protection, and ensure that the gains of growth, technology, and climate action translate into secure, dignified livelihoods.
If achieved, the four labour codes will be remembered not just as a legal consolidation, but as the foundation of a future-ready world of work where the risks of transition are equitably shared among all stakeholders.
(Samar is a senior economist and policy professional. Annapoorna is a Bengaluru-based communication specialist and trainer)
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.