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Jan Sahas – Enabling Faster Access to Worker Entitlements with Verifiable Credentials

Products Used :

About Jan Sahas

Jan Sahas is a grassroots organization working to end caste- and gender-based exploitation and improve access to rights for migrant workers in India. Through initiatives like the Migrants Resilience Collaborative (MRC), it supports millions of labourers across sectors in securing social protection, dignity, and justice.

The Challenge:

Under India’s Building and Other Construction Workers (BOCW) welfare scheme, migrant labourers are entitled to a range of government benefits once they complete 90 days of work. But verifying that work is often where the system breaks down.

 

Documentation is scattered, unstandardized, or simply unavailable. Workers rely on informal contracts, oral agreements, or employer-issued slips that are difficult to authenticate. The lack of reliable proof prevents timely access to entitlements and leaves workers without safety nets.

Solution: Digitally Signed, Verifiable Work Certificates​

To bridge this trust and verification gap, Jan Sahas partnered with Ooru Digital’s CredIssuer platform – a digital credentialing system designed to issue tamper-proof, verifiable certificates.

The pilot aimed to digitize and authenticate the 90-day work histories of migrant labourers, so that civil society partners and government officials could verify them instantly and securely.

How It Worked:
  • Field data collection: Jan Sahas field partners recorded workers’ job details using Ooru’s low-code Digital Forms tool.

 

  • Credential issuance: After basic verification, a digitally signed work certificate was issued via CredIssuer.

 

  • Real-time verification: These credentials could be instantly validated by government officers or social protection officials – reducing the need for manual scrutiny or paperwork.

Outcomes

  • Streamlined Eligibility: Workers were able to present verifiable digital proof of their work history, speeding up access to BOCW benefits.
  • Reduced Verification Burden: Civil servants spent less time cross-checking fragmented records, while field teams could focus on outreach and support.
  • Data-Driven Advocacy: For Jan Sahas, the platform provided a repository of secure, verifiable data to strengthen advocacy for policy inclusion and enforcement.

Why It Worked

Low-code tools for field use

Digital Forms made data capture easy for non-technical field staff in low-connectivity environments.

Civil society–led integration

Deployment was guided by Jan Sahas’s grassroots understanding, ensuring worker-first design.

Designed for real-world complexity

The system accounted for incomplete or inconsistent data typical in informal labour settings.

Tamper-proof credentials

Work certificates were digitally signed and verifiable, increasing trust from government stakeholders.

What's Next

Building on the pilot’s success, Jan Sahas and Ooru Digital plan to explore:

 

  • Scaling the issuance of work credentials across more geographies and labour categories

 

  • Integrating with state BOCW registration systems for real-time claim submission

 

  • Expanding the model to support other rights-based documentation such as wage slips, grievance redressals, or skill credentials

Conclusion

By digitizing trust at the point of need, Jan Sahas and Ooru Digital have shown how verifiable credentials can unlock social protection for the most vulnerable. This pilot is a model for how digital public infrastructure—when rooted in field realities—can empower civil society, simplify governance, and ensure that no worker is left out of the safety net.