India's rapidly expanding gig economy: Do we really understand it?

Raman Mann, 41, took to driving a cab for an application-based aggregator in Delhi last August after he was laid off as a security guard. Rizul Khan, 24, delivers packages for a food delivery platform in Noida.
 

They are drops in the ever swelling ocean of India’s gig and platform economy, which is estimated to have 8 million workers and expected to grow to 23.5 million by 2029-30, according to a NITI Aayog report released in 2022. Another study, by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) in association with human resource firm Randstad India, in 2023, says 42.24 per cent of India’s startups are now looking to hire temporary and gig workers.
 

No doubt, gig work and gig workers have become commonplace.
 

We hear about them often. Do we fully understand them?
 

Gig work is often used in the same breath as “platform”. The latter refers to organisations, usually using internet-based technologies, that bring together service providers, who are not its employees, and customers for a fee. However, “gig” and “platform” work have been tricky to define. Both are seen as a part of a wider category of “nonstandard employment”, where the work is contingent and non-permanent.
 

Section 2 (35) of the Code on Social Security, 2020, which is part of the four new labour codes, for the first time, defined “gig worker” as a person who performs work or participates in a work arrangement and earns from such activities outside of traditional employer-employee relationship. Section 2 (60) of the code defined “platform work” as a work arrangement outside traditional employee-employer relationship in which an online platform is used to solve specific problems or to provide specific services that may be notified by the Central government. Section 2 (61) of the code defined “platform worker” as someone engaged in platform work.
 

Meanwhile, the NITI Aayog report defined gig workers as those engaged in livelihoods outside the traditional employer-employee arrangement and classified them into platform and non-platform-based workers.
 

“Platform workers are those whose work is based on online software apps or digital platforms. Non-platform gig workers are generally casual wage workers and own-account workers in the conventional sectors, working part-time or full time,” the report says.
 

However, since labour is a concurrent list item – laws for it can be made by both Parliament as well as state assemblies — the rules under the new code need to be drafted by the Centre as well as states for implementation. According to a recent study by V V Giri National Labour Institute, only 27 states and Union territories had framed the draft rules under the code by November 2022, and there is significant divergence among these state rules, causing delays in implementation.
 

Thanks to these delays, those such as Raman Mann and Rizul Khan work long hours without any paid leave, health benefits, pension, provident fund, or medical cover.
 

Akriti Bhatia, founder of People’s Association in Grassroots Action and Movements, says the way the terms “gig” and “platform worker” have been defined in the new code is a misclassification. Gig and platform workers work for money on a specific task of their own volition outside of traditional employer-employee relationship. In India, though, platform and gig work have emerged as the principal form of work for millions.
 

This, says Bhatia, is a reality the new code has not taken into account.
 

Working conditions
 

A recent survey of 10,000 cab drivers and delivery persons by the University of Pennsylvania in Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Indore, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bengaluru revealed that nearly 60 per cent cab drivers reported working for more than 12 hours in a day, and 78 per cent delivery personnel for more than 10 hours a day.
 

“Anybody working such long hours should get full-time employee status. In India, workers start their professional life by engaging with these platforms in a flexible way, but the deteriorating labour market makes them dependent on these platforms for livelihood,” Bhatia says.
 

In the UPenn survey, 43 per cent of cab drivers reported a net monthly earning (after deducting costs such as food, fuel, vehicle maintenance and equated monthly instalments) of less than Rs 15,000, and 34 per cent delivery persons reported Rs 10,000. Eighty-three per cent cab drivers and 73 per cent delivery persons reported being affected by deactivation and blocking by platforms.
 

“A few months ago, I had to sit idle for 21 days following a complaint against me by a user,” says Khan. “Had there been a law, I could have presented my side of the events.”
 

Mann, too, makes a case for bringing gig work under the existing labour laws until the new codes come into force.
 

“It has been more than a year and I hardly took any weekly offs or leave. My family remains worried as I am always on the road and have no accident insurance. A lot of my earning goes into increased fuel and maintenance costs and the occasional traffic fines,” he says.
 

But there is another side to this. A study by Ola Mobility Institute says platforms across the board offer accident cover, including disability and death, that passenger mobility platforms provide up to Rs 5,00,000 and hyperlocal delivery platforms Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, along with health and medical support.
 

Time for a new law?
 

Earlier this month, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said on the social media platform, X, that if his party was elected to power, it would bring in a new law, on the lines of the one in Rajasthan, to improve the working conditions for gig and platform workers and give them social security.
 

“Crores of such youth who are supporting themselves and their families by working informally in the gig economy shall be benefitted,” he posted.
 

Rajasthan, under the previous government led by the Congress, passed the Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act last year, which provided for a welfare board and a registry of all gig workers, aggregators, and primary employers in the state who worked with gig workers. The gig worker would also be assigned an ID number valid across platforms for the duration of the work. A platform-based welfare cess will be collected on each transaction, between 1 and 2 per cent of the transaction value, to fund social security schemes for gig workers.
 

However, Rajasthan, where there is a new government, has yet to frame the rules for this.
 

Shaik Salauddin, general secretary, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers, says recognition of the problems being faced by platform-based workers by state governments is a welcome move. But a lot of issues remain unaddressed.
 

“The upcoming new laws must recognise a gig and platform-based worker as an ‘employee’ and assure minimum earnings per day in accordance with the state laws on minimum wages. Also, simple, transparent and fair contracts are needed to better their lives,” he says.
 

The NITI Aayog report called for skill development for platform jobs, accelerating finance for platform workers, refining the employment survey methodologies to better enumerate platform workers, enhancing social inclusion in the new age digital economy, and extending social security benefits to workers engaged in irregular work. 
 

Mann and Khan are waiting.

Fear and loathing

In October last year, a pizza delivery man in Pune, Maharashtra, was assaulted and threatened with a gun fired in the air by an angry customer whose pizza was delivered late. Such incidents are increasing for gig and platform workers. A survey by PAIGAM, an NGO, found the following:

-        Nearly 47% of cab drivers reported facing some form of violence at work

-        41.5% of delivery persons said they had faced violent situations at work

-        64% gig workers reported not getting support from their platform companies when faced with such                 incidents

-        99.3% of cab drivers reported experiencing anxiety, stress, and chronic pain in the body

-        98.5% of delivery personnel, too, reported the above

-        This is believed to be a result of long working hours and harsh conditions