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Problem Our work Approach Where we work Partner
Informal workers · Barari Block · Bihar

The law owes informal workers social security. We get it to them.

Act Now India works with daily-wage and informal workers in Barari Block, Katihar district. We help them register for the pensions, insurance and entitlements they are owed, and we help them organise so they can claim more than one form at a time.

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89,668
Workers in our block / Census 2011
88
Villages
100%
Rural catchment
31.38crore registered
unorganised workers on India's e-Shram database by November 2025
21.11.25labour codes in force
the day all four labour codes took effect, naming informal workers as a covered group
6 in 10have no cover
workers in our block are cultivators or farm labourers, with no social security from any employer
Sources — Ministry of Labour and Employment; Press Information Bureau; Census of India 2011 (Barari Block, sub-district 01153)
01 / The problem

The schemes exist. The distance to them is the problem.

India's social protection system is wide on paper. The hard part is the gap between a scheme and a worker who cannot reach it alone.

Pension, life cover, accident cover, health cover and food security all exist, and most are now linked through a single portal. The binding constraint is not the absence of schemes. It is the distance between a scheme and a worker who cannot read the form, has not gathered the documents, loses a day's wage to reach an office, and has no one to ask when an application stalls.

Barari Block shows that gap sharply. Of the workers Census 2011 counted, close to six in ten were in agriculture, work that carries no provident fund and no insurance. Adult literacy sits near half. The block is entirely rural, so the nearest service centre or bank branch is often a paid bus ride away.

Each missed enrolment is a quiet transfer of risk back onto the poorest household.

What a missed form costs

₹3,000
monthly pension after 60 under PM-SYM, lost if a worker is never enrolled
₹2 lakh
life cover under PMJJBY, for ₹436 a year, that never reaches an unregistered family
₹5 lakh
cashless hospital cover a year under Ayushman Bharat, unclaimed without a card
02 / Why now
On 21 November 2025, India's four labour codes came into force, naming informal workers as a covered group for the first time.

The implementing rules are still being written through 2026. The legal promise now exists. Whether it reaches a worker in Barari depends on registration, paperwork and follow-up at the last mile. That is the work we do, and this is the moment to do it.

Framework enacted · rules pending · field work needed
03 / Our work

Six lines of work, in one place, with continuity.

None of these is new on its own. The value is in doing them together, in the same villages, year after year, so the change holds.

01

Awareness

Village campaigns and plain-language materials on rights and schemes, built for low-literacy audiences.

02

Organising

Forming and strengthening worker collectives, and backing local leaders, with deliberate attention to women.

03

Registration

Hands-on help through documentation, e-Shram, scheme enrolment and grievance follow-up.

04

Local capacity

Training frontline workers, leaders and community bodies so capability stays in the block.

05

Financial linkage

Connecting workers to banks, savings and credit so a single shock no longer pushes a family backward.

06

Dialogue with the state

Regular forums between workers and the local administration, with feedback it can act on.

04 / Approach

How a worker moves from excluded to secure.

Each step is the condition for the next. Reached workers get enrolled; workers who enrol together can organise; organised workers can shift how the system behaves.

01
Reach

Meet them

Meet workers in the village and explain what they are entitled to.

02
Enrol

Walk through

Documents, e-Shram and the schemes each worker qualifies for.

03
Organise

Form groups

Collectives that solve problems and negotiate as a bloc.

04
Shift

Move the system

Use collective weight and records to make delivery responsive.

→
The aim

Dignity

Security, a recognised voice, and a model others can copy.

05 / Where we work

Barari Block, Katihar, Bihar

Barari is one of sixteen blocks in Katihar district, in the flood-prone belt where the Ganga, Kosi and Mahananda meet. It is entirely rural, spread across 88 villages, with a large casual and agricultural workforce and thin administrative reach.

We started here because the need is high and the field is uncrowded. The model is built so that what works in Barari can move to the district's other blocks.

2.85L
People in the block / 2011
89,668
Workers, the base we measure against
88
Villages across the block
~31%
Work participation rate
06 / Credibility

Built to meet the standards funders and partners check.

Our work maps onto national development goals and qualifies for corporate social responsibility funding under Indian company law.

Sustainable Development Goals

Mapped to four SDG targets

Every activity ties back to a recognised global target, measured against the workers we engage rather than asserted.

1.3 Social protection 5.5 Women's leadership 8.3 Decent work 10.2 Inclusion
Corporate social responsibility

Eligible under Schedule VII

The work qualifies under more than one head of Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013: poverty, education and livelihoods, women's empowerment, and rural development. Companies can route CSR spend to us once these gates are cleared.

  • 01Registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (Form CSR-1)
  • 02Valid 12A and 80G registration under the Income-tax Act
  • 03A track record of charitable activity in the field

Help a worker claim what the law already owes them.

We work with companies meeting their CSR obligation, with foundations, and with partners who want to see social security actually reach rural Bihar. Tell us what you want to support, and we will show you the field plan and the numbers behind it.

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