Hiring for a Section 8 Project: Should We Offer Full Benefits or Consultant Roles?

Dear Experts, I would like to request your feedback on the following issue:

Hiring for a Section 8 Company Project

We have a Section 8 company and recently received a project for 2 years, which may extend according to requirements and the project's performance. For initiation and operations, we need to hire 45 people as our employees for this period. My concern is whether we should onboard them as consultants or provide them with other benefits such as PF/ESIC since we are going to recruit more than 40 employees. However, they will not be placed in one location; their locations may vary according to requirements.

Looking forward to your valuable feedback.

Any company registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, is a legal entity exclusively run for charitable purposes and, as such, is exempted from certain laws like the Income Tax Act. However, they are run with systematic cooperation between the employer and employees only. Therefore, its employees cannot be deprived of social security benefits provided for by the ESI and EPF Acts.