SRINAGAR: At least 2,32,329 people in Jammu and Kashmir are currently registered on the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) digital platform, placing them within the organised and largely private-sector workforce, the Union government informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The figure provides an official indication of formal employment in the Union Territory, where a large share of the workforce continues to operate outside social security coverage.
The information was shared by the Ministry of Labour and Employment in a written reply to an unstarred question in the Upper House on online settlement of EPFO cases. EPFO enrolment does not include government employees but is widely used as a proxy to assess organised-sector employment, covering workers in private companies, factories, banks, educational institutions, hospitals and other registered establishments.
The government said that online provident fund claims across the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, are now being settled within an average of eight days, reflecting a significant improvement in service delivery through digitisation. Officials said the EPFO’s digital architecture is uniformly applicable across States and Union Territories, allowing members in Jammu and Kashmir access to the same online claim, transfer and correction facilities as elsewhere.
According to the ministry, EPFO has witnessed a sharp rise in the volume of online claims and service requests over the last three years. In 2023–24, nearly 5.99 crore claims were processed online, along with more than 66,000 member profile correction requests. In 2024–25, online claims rose to 7.70 crore, while service requests increased to about 14.87 lakh. In the current financial year 2025–26, up to January 23, EPFO has already processed 8.53 crore claims and more than 27.33 lakh service requests.
The ministry told Parliament that EPFO services are delivered through its Unified Portal and Field Office Application, together referred to as EPFO 2.0, which have undergone several software upgrades aimed at improving transparency, reducing paperwork and limiting the need for physical visits to EPFO offices.
Among the recent changes highlighted by the government are a simplified joint declaration process that allows members to self-correct personal details through system-driven validation, and a facility enabling members with fully compliant e-KYC accounts to file online transfer claims without employer approval. The Centralised Pension Payments System, implemented nationwide in December 2024, now allows pensioners to receive payments through any scheduled bank branch across the country. Aadhaar-based face authentication has also been introduced to enable employees to generate and activate their Universal Account Numbers independently through the UMANG application.
