Teenager helps Indian informal workers access government welfare schemes

Ayaan Wadhwa, a 17 year old student in Mumbai, India, founded the initiative Workers of India to help unorganised sector workers register for government welfare schemes.

Wadhwa started the project in 2024 after a domestic worker in his family faced a medical emergency without savings or insurance. He realized that many workers lacked the information or technical skills to navigate the government's e-Shram portal, which creates a national database for social security.

Wadhwa created simplified booklets in Hindi, Marathi, and English to explain available welfare provisions. He organizes workshops in residential societies where he provides one on one assistance to help workers complete their registrations. These efforts have expanded beyond Mumbai to include manufacturing plants in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. To further bridge the information gap, Wadhwa developed an AI powered WhatsApp chatbot that provides information on employment documentation and welfare provisions in three languages.

He also created a tool called Naukri Nama to help domestic workers and employers draft written employment agreements. The initiative received support from the International Baccalaureate Global Youth Action Fund in July 2026 to help scale these efforts.