The revised survey will sample 14 households per unit, up from 12, to find platform workers it has missed so far.
NEW DELHI: From 1 January 2027, India’s Periodic Labour Force Survey will ask sampled households whether anyone did app-based platform work in the past year. It will also record unpaid household work, such as care and own-use production, as a routine matter for the first time. The National Statistics Office announced the changes on 23 October through a concept note and press release, and a 15-day public consultation ends in early November. Notably, headline employment figures are not expected to jump, because the redesign improves what the survey sees without changing how jobs are defined.
Block 5 asks one question
The screening question sits in Block 5 of Schedule 0.0PL and goes to all rural and urban households in each selected village or urban block. It asks whether any member did digital platform work during a reference period of up to 365 days. Households that answer yes enter a dedicated second-stage stratum, and the sample per first-stage unit rises from 12 households to 14 to make room. Platform households are therefore deliberately oversampled, which cuts the sampling variance that blurred earlier estimates.
The Code on Social Security, 2020, gives the terms legal meaning. It defines a gig worker as someone who earns outside a traditional employer-employee relationship, and a platform worker as one who reaches buyers through an online platform for payment.
Why the old sample missed them
Until now, the survey coded such workers as own-account workers, helpers in household enterprises or casual labour, since it had no marker for a digital intermediary. Their mobility, irregular hours and use of several apps at once also made them hard to catch. MoSPI began an experimental exercise on platform workers in January 2026, and it found that standard random sampling yielded too few of them for reliable estimates. That finding led directly to the new stratum.
Outside estimates show the stakes. NITI Aayog put platform workers at 7.7 million in 2020-21, or 2.6% of the non-agricultural workforce, and projects 23.5 million by 2029-30. Boston Consulting Group has cited about 15 million. The methods differ, so a representative survey figure would give policymakers a common benchmark.
Schedule 10.4 counts what was never counted
The second change reaches inside homes. Schedule 10.4 will record own-use production, unpaid domestic and care work, volunteering and unpaid trainee work for people aged 15 and above, and it will report annual participation rates. Today, people mainly doing domestic duties, mostly women, fall under activity status 92 or 93 and sit outside the labour force. The 2019 Time Use Survey, which used a 24-hour diary in 30-minute slots, showed wide gender gaps in unpaid work. The new module will not match that detail, but it will refresh the picture every year.
Codes 92 and 93 stay where they are
Under the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 2013, unpaid household services count as work but not as employment, which covers only work for pay or profit. India follows that standard, so the labour force participation rate and worker population ratio will not rise because of the new module. However, better identification may move some workers from generic own-account or casual categories into platform work, with little change in total employment. New items should also give clearer estimates of underemployment among gig workers on thin or volatile hours.
Panel 6 begins with a bridge quarter
Panel 6 covers 2027 and 2028 and draws on an updated sampling frame. From January to March 2027, field teams will pool units from Panels 5 and 6, and monthly bulletins will carry estimates without relative standard errors while weights are adjusted. Standalone Panel 6 monthly estimates start in April 2027, with quarterly estimates from the second quarter. The first annual report with the unpaid work module is expected in mid-2028.
Analysts should note that this is the third redesign in a decade, after 2017 and January 2025, so long trends will need care at each break. Questionnaire finalisation, field manuals, pilots and training all take place before January.
Why the numbers will matter
Welfare policy is waiting for such data. Section 141 of the Social Security Code provides for a fund for unorganised, gig and platform workers, financed partly by aggregator contributions of 1% to 2% of turnover, capped at 5% of payouts to workers. Rajasthan’s 2023 law created a welfare board, unique worker IDs and a transaction-based fee of 1% to 2%, and Karnataka and Telangana have proposed similar frameworks. A representative count would help states estimate beneficiaries and likely revenue. It could also be checked against the voluntary e-Shram portal to show how many workers remain unregistered.
Dates on the calendar
Several details remain open. It is unclear whether the final questionnaire will capture platform names, earnings, hours, commissions or social security status, and whether platform data will appear quarterly for urban areas or only annually. How MoSPI aligns the survey with e-Shram, EPFO and state portals is also unsettled. The consultation closes in early November, and field work begins on 1 January.
Encouragingly, India is updating its labour statistics to match how people actually earn and care. Ultimately, the first Panel 6 results in 2027 will show how large the previously uncounted workforce really is.
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