12th BRICS Labour & Employment Ministers' Meeting Outcomes
India successfully hosted the 12th BRICS Labour and Employment Ministers' Meeting in Hyderabad under its 2026 BRICS Chairship, guided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision with a 'people-centric' approach and 'Humanity First' spirit. The meeting brought together ministers, heads of delegation, representatives of BRICS member countries, workers' and employers' organizations, and knowledge partners to deliberate on key issues shaping the future of work under the theme "Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability."
Key Achievements and Initiatives
The major outcome was the adoption of 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. The declaration covers four priority areas: advancing social security and formalization of labour markets, enhancing women's participation and inclusion in the workforce, cooperation on employability and skills mapping, and leveraging digital technologies for all workers including gig and platform workers.
India launched BRICS CONNECT, an institutional initiative aimed at strengthening technical cooperation, knowledge exchange, and capacity building among BRICS countries. This platform will serve as a collaborative mechanism 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.
India's Labour Reforms and Achievements
Union Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya highlighted India's landmark labour reforms, noting the consolidation of 29 outdated labour laws into four modern Labour Codes in November 2025, creating a worker-centric ecosystem for India's 1.4 billion citizens.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. The International Labour Organisation Director General commended India's social protection system, noting that according to ILO running estimates, it now reaches 1 billion people, offering lessons that can be shared through South-South cooperation.
BRICS Country Contributions and Best Practices
During national statements, Indonesia emphasized skills development, social protection for informal workers, and inclusive employment opportunities for women, persons with disabilities, and remote communities. Iran underlined the importance of dialogue and cooperation within the BRICS framework. UAE highlighted its labour market reforms based on private sector partnership, agile regulation, openness to global talent, and use of digital technologies and AI for labour administration.
South Africa hailed BRICS CONNECT as an institutional innovation moving collaboration beyond policy dialogue. Ethiopia emphasized demand-driven vocational education aiming to create one million jobs by 2030. Russia shared progress on declining unemployment rates, digitalization of the sector, and electronic applications for payments. Brazil highlighted its micro-internship programme benefiting millions of workers and called for expanded cooperation on AI. China underscored the rise of the platform economy and new forms of work.
The technical session on best practices featured discussions on social justice, decent work, human dignity, human-centric technology and AI, social security for all, portability of benefits, continuous upskilling, recognition of prior learning, and women's participation in the future of work. International knowledge partners including ILO, International Social Security Association, and United Nations Resident Coordinator's Office supported the technical deliberations.