12th BRICS Labour & Employment Ministers' Meeting in Hyderabad
India successfully hosted the 12th BRICS Labour and Employment Ministers' Meeting in Hyderabad under its 2026 BRICS Chairship, bringing together Ministers, Heads of Delegation, representatives of BRICS member countries, workers' and employers' organizations, and knowledge partners. The meeting was convened under India's Chairship theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability" and focused on advancing collective action in social protection, labour market formalization, women's workforce participation, skills development, and use of digital technologies for inclusive and resilient labour markets.
India's Labour Reforms and Digital Initiatives
Union Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya highlighted India's landmark labour reforms, noting that the country consolidated 29 outdated labour laws into four modern Labour Codes in November 2025, creating a worker-centric ecosystem for India's 1.4 billion citizens. The e-Shram portal has enabled unique identification, de-duplication and seamless access to welfare benefits for over 317 million registered unorganised workers. The National Career Service portal combines job-matching, skills mapping and counselling, with flexible design allowing rapid expansion of services to new worker categories such as platform workers. India hosts more than 2,100 Global Capability Centres employing 2.35 million professionals and generating nearly USD 98 billion in annual revenue.
BRICS Declaration and Commitments
The meeting adopted the BRICS Labour and Employment Ministers' Declaration reflecting shared commitment to promote decent work, strengthen social protection systems, enhance employability, support inclusive growth, and deepen cooperation. Under Priority 1 on Advancing Social Security and Formalisation of Labour Markets, member states agreed to commend collective efforts in expanding social protection coverage and shall endeavour to progressively expand coverage from existing levels as per nationally determined levels. Under Priority 2 on Enhancing Women's Participation and Inclusion in the Workforce, members committed to strengthening policy frameworks that empower women through expanded access to skills development, parental leave policies, and protection against workplace harassment and discrimination. Under Priority 3 on Cooperation on Employability, Skills Mapping and Development, members took note of the ongoing feasibility study on International Reference Classification of Occupations being conducted by the ILO in collaboration with India, joined by Brazil. Under Priority 4 on Leveraging Digital Technologies for All Workers, including Gig and Platform Workers, members will work together to create opportunities to exchange knowledge and experiences on digital innovations.
BRICS CONNECT Initiative and International Recognition
India launched BRICS CONNECT, an institutional initiative aimed at strengthening technical cooperation, knowledge exchange, and capacity building among BRICS countries. It will serve as a collaborative platform for sharing best practices in improving labour market intelligence, supporting skills forecasting, and facilitating cooperation on future skills, digital employment services, social security, and labour market reforms. The Director General of ILO commended India's leadership for placing labour and employment at the heart of the BRICS agenda and extended appreciation for India's robust social security ecosystem, noting that according to ILO running estimates, India's social protection system now reaches 1 billion people.
National Statements and Best Practices
BRICS countries delivered national statements highlighting their respective priorities: Indonesia emphasized skills development and social protection for informal workers; Iran underlined the importance of dialogue and cooperation; UAE highlighted labour market reforms based on private sector partnership and digital technologies; South Africa hailed BRICS CONNECT as an institutional innovation; Ethiopia emphasized demand-driven vocational education aiming to create one million jobs by 2030; Russia shared progress on declining unemployment rates and digitalization; Brazil highlighted its micro-internship programme and called for expanded cooperation on AI; China underscored the rise of the platform economy and new forms of work.