Betel farmer Savana Bhoi, 58, of Garh Nipania village in Puri district is not sure what benefits the e-Shram card would bring her or when.

But she has already had to fork out Rs 100 to obtain the card, which the government says should be free, thanks to a scam running across India’s villages.

The Union labour ministry has been registering unorganised workers since August 26 to create a database on an e-Shram portal. Its target is to register all the country’s estimated 38 crore informal workers by the Supreme Court-set deadline of December 31.

Since many rural people are unfamiliar with online registration, the government appointed thousands of common service centres (CSCs) — anyone from a private individual with a computer to cyber cafes — to help register the workers. The CSCs are paid Rs 20 per person registered.

But labour organisations say that many CSCs are charging between Rs 100 and Rs 500 per person — an allegation a labour ministry official confirmed.

Those with e-Shram cards can claim PDS rations anywhere in India — a big help for migrant workers — as well as accident insurance. Farmers like Savana have been registering in large numbers without any idea what benefits the card can bring them.

Savana, who’s also an occasional farm labourer, had heard from a neighbour that the central government would provide “lots of assistance” to villagers who have the e-Shram card. Her family grows betel but Covid has hit the market for betel leaves.

“We gave our documents to the person making the cards. He charged us Rs 100 each. That is what they charge everybody,” Savana said.

Harapriya, a mother of two schoolchildren from the same village, said: “We have paid Rs 700 for seven adults. I don’t know what benefits the card will bring.”

Suprabha Bhoi, wife of Sudhanshu Mohan Bhoi, a tractor driver who earns about Rs 8,000 a month, too has secured a card. These days her husband is unable to procure work every day since the sowing and transplanting are over.

“Since everybody is registering for the card, we too did. We hope something will come of it,” Suprabha said.

The labour ministry wants to create a National Database of Unorganised Workers on the e-Shram portal, with every registered worker getting a card with a unique 12-digit number.

Till Monday, 3.38 crore workers had been registered, with Odisha leading at 80 lakh workers. Of the targeted 38 crore registrations this year, if 20 crore workers get their cards by paying Rs 100 each, the CSCs will have made Rs 2,000 crore over and above what the government pays them, said Amarjeet Kaur, secretary of CPI labour arm Aituc.

“This is a big scam. We have brought this to the notice of the government. The CSCs are charging money from people who are at the bottom of the ladder,” she said.

A labour ministry official acknowledged the scam and said district authorities were taking action. “We have already discontinued the services of 300-plus CSCs. Our officials have filed FIRs against many CSCs. Whenever any case is coming to our notice, we are taking action,” the official said.

He said only 2.7 per cent of the workers registered so far were migrant labourers. The government now has no reliable data on migrant workers but the database will fill that gap, he said.

A media release from the Press Information Bureau said that if a worker was registered with the e-Shram portal and met with an accident, his or her family would receive Rs 2 lakh on death or permanent disability and Rs 1 lakh for partial disability.