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Covid-19: Reimagining laws to provide adequate protection to gig workers

Some experts for bringing gig workers under the ambit of the contract labour Act; others want a new rulebook

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Certain protections that are already in the legal framework can be made available to the platform workforce by considering them as workers/employees of the platform under the law | Photo: Dalip Kumar

Sudipto Dey New Delhi
The Covid-19 pandemic may force policymakers to revisit the draft Social Security Code, 2019, to provide adequate protection to gig workers from inherent frailties of the model, and in times of crisis, say experts.

The government last week unveiled an Rs 50,000-crore employment scheme to boost livelihood opportunities in rural areas for pandemic-hit migrant workers. However, no such income booster is in the offing for thousands of platform-based gig economy workers, working largely outside the ambit of the country’s labour law regulations.   

In the pandemic induced lockdown, most such workers experienced a drastic loss of income security. Many were forced to