The Reality of India’s Workers: Unmasking the Exploitation in the Gig Economy
Hello, friends! Whether it’s a 45°C hot summer day, or there’s water-logging outside due to heavy rains, whether there’s a storm, or there is too much pollution, whether it’s day or night, today, in this era of convenience, we don’t have to worry ourselves. Because we can remain in the comfort of our home to order whatever we want, merely through a smartphone app. But have you ever thought about those strangers who make this possible? Have you ever thought about things from their perspective? These people are called Gig Workers.
The Hidden Toll of the Gig Economy
According to a survey by the National Council for Applied Economic Research, on average, a gig worker works for 69.3 hours in a week in our country. It’s almost as if you work seven days a week, for almost 10 hours each day, without any day-offs or Sundays. For comparison, in this survey, the other workers work an average of 56 hours per week.
The number of hours an average gig worker works for, the level of his qualification, and the little money he makes, hardly any other workers in our cities suffer as much. The amazing thing is that the qualifications of an average gig worker are better compared to other workers’. But at the same time, 75% of gig workers in our country are facing financial difficulties. On average, they earn only ₹18,000 per month, even after working hard tirelessly.
In today’s video, friends, come, let’s understand this gig worker profession in depth.
What is the Gig Economy?
Friends, the word ‘Gig’, G-I-G, means a temporary job or a performance act. Before modern-day gig workers became popular, usually musicians and comedians used this term. Because the job of these performing artists is such that they don’t get a regular salary. They get paid for individual acts. If a comedian does a show in a company, it becomes a gig for him, for which he gets paid. The first time the word ‘Gig’ was used for a temporary paid job was in 1952 when an influential author, Jack Kerouac, wrote an article about how he got a gig to work as a brakeman on a railroad.
Today, freelancing is also included in this category, and in the last 10 years, in fact, in the last 4 years, after COVID, we have seen a tremendous growth in the Gig Economy.
Now, the Gig Economy can be divided into two parts: one is service-based gigs, and the other is knowledge-based gigs. Services are offered by low to semi-skilled workers like the delivery agents. And knowledge is offered in high-skilled jobs like consultants and data scientists. Service workers are also called Blue-Collar Gig Workers, and knowledge workers are also called White-Collar Gig Workers. But usually, whenever we talk about gig workers, it is the first category that is referred to, those people who work for companies like Uber, Ola, Zomato, Swiggy, Urban Company, Porter, Zepto. Their work is different from desk jobs, and those people who are delivering these digital platform services in real life.
The Theoretical Benefits of the Gig Economy
Now, theoretically, if we see, in comparison to normal jobs, there are many benefits of the gig economy for the employees and employers both. What are the benefits for the employers and the companies? They can hire the employees as needed, and fire them whenever they want. There is no contract with the employee. If they don’t like an employee, he can be immediately removed from the job. And if they like someone, they can hire them immediately.
On the other hand, the employees get flexibility. They can work when they want to. They can work for the company they want. They don’t need to go to any office. They can work from anywhere. If they don’t like a job, they can leave it and find another one. It’s even possible to work for multiple companies at the same time, giving them an opportunity to earn extra money. On top of it, if you have a main job, you can do it as a side job to earn an extra, supplementary income. There are so many benefits to it. It sounds too good to be true. So you might ask, what is the problem?
The Reality of Gig Work: Exploitation and Inequality
The problem is that these benefits are only theoretical. In reality, practically speaking, the situation is getting bad to worse. As per NITI Aayog’s 2022 report, India’s booming gig and platform economy, before the COVID pandemic, had around 3 million gig workers in the country. But by 2021, this number reached 7.7 million. And this sector is expected to grow so much that by 2030, this number will reach 23.5 million.
The Oxford Internet Institute’s Online Labour Index tells us that India’s online labour market share is at 24%. This means that India is the #1 country in the world in this regard. What do we learn from this? This tells us that most people in our country do not consider the gig economy for supplementary extra income, but as their main job.
In fact, as per Ipsos Research’s 2024 survey, for 88% of gig workers in the country, gig work is their primary source of income. On the other hand, look at this number. Flourish Ventures’ September 2020 research, 6 months after the lockdown, 90% of gig workers said that their salaries have gone down, and 47% of gig workers weren’t able to manage their expenses without borrowing money.
During Covid, we called them Covid Warriors, Frontline Warriors, or even Lifelines. But most people came to this profession due to compulsion.
The Story of Karan Singh: A Frontline Worker’s Struggle
The Logical Indian covered the story of a gig worker named Karan Singh. Karan lived in Delhi’s Paschim Vihar and was a construction worker. When construction work was stopped due to Covid, he had no source to get food, water, or ration. His wife and two daughters depended on him, and the burden of running the household kept increasing. Then a friend told him about gig work. And he decided to use their last savings to get a second-hand scooter on lease. And he became a delivery partner for a delivery platform. Being a frontline worker meant that he could deliver essential goods during the COVID lockdown. But soon after, it became his main profession, and today, he works for a bike-taxi service platform.
There are many such stories in our country where the gig economy saved people’s livelihoods. Today, these companies refer to their gig workers by different names. Some bike-taxi company uses the word Captain, some call them Experts. But most of the companies use the word Partner.
Normally, when the word ‘Partner’ is used in a business, it means that the person will share your work, will work with you, and the profits and losses will be shared. But is this the case for gig workers?
The scooter or bike that a gig worker needs to do his job has to be bought with his own money. The cost of petrol used comes out of their pockets. Take the classic example of Uber or Ola drivers. Suppose, a taxi driver drops you off at a place, and at that location, he can’t find another ride. To find a ride, he might need to travel 15-20 km, to a hotspot. So, to travel those 15-20 km, does the company pay 50% of the cost of the petrol used? Not at all.
The Deception of “Partnership” and Avoiding Legal Obligations
So the question is, what kind of a partnership is this? Actually, friends, the word ‘Partner’ is used to avoid legal problems for these companies. If those companies start calling them Employees, then there will be a lot of responsibilities on those companies. They will need to provide health insurance. In case of a work-related accident, it will be the company’s liability. And the responsibilities of paying tax and a minimum wage.
According to the Oxford Internet Institute’s Fair Work Research Project 2022, 11 Indian platforms were studied, and not a single one of these platforms could prove that their gig workers get at least local living wage after covering all work-related costs.
The Centre for Labour Studies at the National Law School, Bengaluru, and Montfort Social Institute conducted a joint study in which they focused on the Ola and Uber taxi drivers in Hyderabad. They found something shocking, that the money a driver earns after working for a day, on average 40% of that earning is spent on petrol or diesel alone. And most drivers work for 12-14 hours a day on average. Meaning, after bearing all the expenses, and considering inflation, if they can earn only a minimum wage, then these gig workers start working extra hours.
It is also worth noting how these companies define themselves. They call themselves Tech Aggregators, Mediators, or Facilitators. They will never use the word Employer. That too will create legal problems if they become Employers and Employees. They’ll have to bear many expenses and will need to take care of their employees. They don’t want to get into these fuss, so they call themselves tech aggregators.
The Tech-Based Middleman and Algorithmic Exploitation
These companies often claim that they have revolutionized the market by removing the middlemen. But just think about it, friends. What have they actually done is they have become the middlemen. On every ride, delivery, or service, they charge 15% to 25% commission, and so have become a tech-based middleman.
And since we’re talking about these tech companies, then it is important to know how their software and algorithms create more problems for their gig workers. But before we talk more about it, I’d like to tell you about the sponsor of this video. They’ll be really useful for you if you want to improve your website’s traffic or ranking.
Thatware: Boosting Your Website’s Visibility
Thatware is an SEO company that uses more than a thousand proprietary AI algorithms and advanced SEO techniques. They will help your website or brand to rank at the top of Google search results, so that your brand or business could be more visible, to get more people to your website. They offer precise ROI tracking as well as real-time insights, so that you can track their results and make informed decisions. Ranking well in search results is like a lottery for any small business because you can get thousands of new customers to your website with only a simple Google search. So, if you’re interested, you can visit their website Thatware.co or use the link given in the description. Go to their website and simply drop your inquiry.
Now let’s get back to our topic.
The Exploitation of Gig Workers: Urban Company, Blinkit, and Swiggy
Frontline covered an interesting case of a gig worker named Ankur. He has two sons. He used to work 12-14 hours a day, for at least 6 days a week. He used to work as a cleaner with Urban Company. He used to travel between Delhi and Gurgaon daily. And one day, he met with an accident. Because of this, the jobs and gigs scheduled for that had to be cancelled because he had to get himself treated. And the next day, when he checked his account, he found that Urban Company had permanently blocked his account. He was shocked to see the reason behind this. When he checked, the reason was clearly written: “For cancelling more than 5 jobs a month.”
It wasn’t about 5 days, it was about only 5 jobs. Since he cancelled 5 gigs because of his accident, his account was permanently blocked.
Many gig workers face this problem where because of some random reason, their account or their ID is banned by these apps. There may be many reasons behind this. If someone calls the company and files a complaint against you, or your ratings decrease on the app, or you took some off-days.
Think about it, friends. When I told you about the benefits of the gig economy, the biggest benefit for employees was that they get flexibility. They can work when they want to. But if there are such rules where rejecting a certain number of jobs can get you removed or cancelled from the app, is there any flexibility? This is a form of slavery where you will have to work to a set extent, and if you fail to do it, you will be removed from the app and you lose your job.
According to this article, workers of Urban Company claim that the workers should have a minimum rating of 4.7, and the response rate should be above 70%. Moreover, not more than 5 jobs should be cancelled in a month.
By avoiding being defined as an Employer, these companies are benefiting. These companies then use various ways to exploit these gig workers. The same Frontline article gives us another example of how, at one point, Urban Company gave discounts to customers, by using money out of workers’ payment.
Last year, more than 200 dark stores run by Zomato-owned Blinkit in Delhi NCR were shut down because the ‘Delivery Executives’ were on strike. What was the reason behind this? When the Delivery Executives signed a contract with Blinkit, the fees mentioned in the contract was ₹50 per order. But later it was reduced to ₹25 per order. And now it was reduced even further to ₹15 per order, with a small distance-based fee component.
A big issue here is that these gig workers have no channels to raise complaints against the company. Last year, we saw a case where Blinkit’s employees were beaten up in Delhi because they didn’t have loose change.
Look at this case from January 2023 where 23-year-old Mohammad Rizwan was attacked by the customer’s dog while delivering a Swiggy order. To protect himself from the dog’s attack, Rizwan fell from the third floor and lost his life. The customer paid ₹500,000 as compensation for this as an out-of-court settlement, but no compensation was paid by Swiggy. The company claimed that Rizwan was using his brother’s account for the deliveries. So, for this accident, Swiggy bore no liability.
This was a rare case, but we do see many such incidents where people shout at gig workers for any delay in delivery. If the workers face any issues, their only recourse is to use chatbots for help.
The Rise of AI and Algorithms in Gig Work
According to Fortune India, most companies have replaced human managers and are using Artificial Intelligence or algorithms to address complaints. For a customer, these apps are well made. If you are using these apps to order something, you will have multiple ways to raise complaints, and often, you get your money back for bad orders. But for these gig workers, the system isn’t helpful at all.
This is why we see so many strikes. In February 2023, workers of Ola, Uber, and Rapido staged a strike in Guwahati because their earnings were decreasing while the commission rate of the companies kept on increasing. The same month, 2,500 Ola and Uber cab drivers protested in Hyderabad regarding the high commission rates charged by these companies. Two months later, in April 2023, Blinkit’s rate cuts happened. But despite the strikes, the rates remained the same.
Many people don’t understand the rating system of these companies. People think that if an Uber or Ola driver has provided a satisfactory service, he should be given 3 or 4 stars. He will get 5 stars only when he provides you an excellent service. On the other hand, people deduct stars on minor issues. Like, if a driver had some problem in finding the place, or was late, or didn’t have the exact change. If you do the same, then think about it from the gig workers’ perspectives. For them, falling below 4.5 stars often means losing their job. How will they run their household?
So the next time you give a rating, 5 stars should be the default. If there are minor problems, ignore them, unless these workers make a big mistake. Apart from this, do thank them for their hard work and sincerity, because they work hard despite harsh conditions, and that is truly praiseworthy.
The Need for Stronger Laws and Protection
And if we want to solve these problems, the solution needs to be stricter laws. Like other countries, the traditional labor laws in India do not cover gig workers. And as I said, companies can find loopholes quite easily by not calling themselves Employers, nor the gig workers Employees.
It was only in 2020 that the Indian government passed a Social Security Code, which included a definition of Gig Worker: “A person who performs work or participates in work arrangements and earns from such activities outside of the traditional employer-employee relationship.” It’s a loose definition.
According to this Act, a gig worker will get many Social Security benefits like Life and Disability Cover, Accident Insurance, Health and Maternity benefits, and old age protection. It sounds good enough, but the biggest problem is that this law has only been drafted. It hasn’t been operationalised yet. Secondly, this law has a different definition of Gig Workers, Platform workers, and Unorganised Workers.
Platform workers are those who work outside the traditional employer-employee relationship, but they access organizations or individuals through an online platform and provide services for payment. An Uber or Ola driver can technically be called a Gig Worker as well as a Platform Worker. Because there is so much overlap in these definitions, it remains unclear how these schemes will apply to these workers.
State Initiatives and Corporate Resistance
So, on one hand, where they are waiting for the Central Government to implement its Social Security Code, on the other hand, some state governments have started taking initiative to protect the rights of gig workers.
The Rajasthan government was the first to do so in 2023, before their state elections. The Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act. This Bill contains five main things:
-
Gig workers should be registered with the state government.
-
Have access to social security schemes.
-
They should have a grievance redressal mechanism.
-
Welfare Boards be established and funded, for which the state government gave ₹2 billion.
-
There should be penalties for non-compliance by companies.
The extra funds required to implement these would come out of an additional cess of 1%-2% of the total bill on every platform-based transaction. And because everything is carried out digitally, everyone will know exactly how did the work done by a worker contributed to that fund. The Social Security benefits proposed to be given to the workers include accident, health insurance, maternity, gratuity, pension, EPF, ESIC, and even scholarships. It sounds really good.
But how well is this law being implemented in Rajasthan? The relevant information isn’t available online. Only those people can tell us this who are working in Rajasthan as gig workers. If you are one of such people, tell us more about this in the comments below.
After Rajasthan, since Congress is in power in Karnataka too, a similar law has been proposed there a few weeks ago: The Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers Social Security and Welfare Bill, 2024.
And do you know what’s interesting here? These companies have already started protesting against this bill. The National Association of Software and Service Companies has claimed that the bill will harm the aggregators’ business. Allegedly, this bill provides for a minimum notice period for terminations. Algorithmic disclosures are also being discussed. It wants to monitor and track different mechanisms. So some companies say that it will have a negative impact on their platforms and they won’t be able to operate properly in the state.
Think about it, these companies have a problem with giving a minimum notice period to gig workers.
Global Perspectives: Unions, Reclassification, and Directives
The problems I listed in this video, other countries are also facing the same problems. And the solutions I talked about, these solutions have already been implemented abroad.
The gig workers in Thailand and Malaysia get health and accident insurance, which is financed by a similar 2% Cess on every ride. In America, the National Labour Relations Board has encouraged Uber and Lyft drivers and other gig workers to be organized and form labour unions. The UK and the Netherlands have recognized that gig workers have been misclassified. They are taking steps to reclassify them as employees.
In December 2023, the European Union passed a Platform Workers Directive. According to this, all gig workers in European countries will be given rights and protections. Those who have been misclassified as being self-employed or a freelancer will be assumed to be regular employees. To do this, they created 5 criteria. If 2 of these criteria are satisfied, then a gig worker will be considered an employee. And the burden of proof is placed on these companies. In relation to all gig workers working with the company, it is the company’s responsibility to prove that these 5 criteria are not being satisfied.
Now that this video is already so long, I won’t go into the legal and technical details. Let’s leave that to the lawyers and the experts who are working to fight for the rights of gig workers.
Kunal Kamra has made an excellent documentary explaining this problem in detail. I will put the link to this documentary in the description below. Many clips used in this video were taken from this documentary.
A Call to Action: Empowering Gig Workers
And finally, what can you and I do? Just as you open the door to your house to receive your orders, please, open the door to your hearts. The journey between Order Placed and Your Order Has Arrived, try to visualize it. By default, if the transaction was satisfactory, then give them a 5-star rating always. And if there is a problem with your order, then remember that it is much better for you to complain as compared to telling the person delivering it.
Link to Thatware is in the description below.
And if you liked this video, then a stark contrast to this video is this one where I talked about celebrities’ fake lives. You can click here to watch it.
Thank you very much!
SEO Keywords: Gig economy, gig workers, India, exploitation, labor laws, social security, Uber, Ola, Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit, Urban Company, platform workers, Thatware, SEO, rating system, Kunal Kamra, documentary,
