Lalit Gargg
In an era of online marketplaces and instant services, gig workers have become the invisible backbone of urban life. Without them, the promise of “ten-minute delivery” or “one-click convenience” would collapse instantly. These workers liberate consumers from the drudgery of visiting markets, delivering goods door to door in every season, at every hour, and often at great personal risk. Yet the irony is glaring: those whose labour sustains the towering edifice of the digital economy endure the greatest insecurity, exploitation, and neglect.
The strike by gig workers on the eve of the New Year may not have paralysed the national supply chain, but it certainly forced the country to confront their grim working conditions. This protest was not the result of political provocation; it was a natural response to mounting work pressure, shrinking earnings, job uncertainty, and the persistent denial of dignity. These young workers, supporting themselves and their families, are routinely seen racing through traffic on motorcycles, hauling heavy bags up the staircases of high-rise buildings. Strict delivery deadlines exert relentless pressure, where even a minor delay invites financial penalties. Accidents, illness, or technical glitches immediately translate into lost income.
Customer behaviour often adds to their distress—rebukes for delays, humiliation over trivial issues, occasional abuse, and punitive ratings that directly affect future earnings are part of their daily reality. Despite working 12 to 14 hours a day, most earn barely ₹700–800, without adequate insurance or social security. This is not incidental hardship; it is systemic exploitation.
Gig workers perform temporary, flexible, task-based work instead of holding traditional jobs, with employment mediated through digital platforms such as Uber, Swiggy, Zomato, and similar applications. They are paid per task rather than receiving a fixed salary and have no permanent employment contracts. Although described as “independent” and marketed as their own bosses, they remain excluded from basic social security benefits such as health insurance, accident coverage, or pensions. Their challenges include unstable income, excessive workloads, long working hours, low pay, and frequent disputes over wages and conditions. While the gig economy differs from the conventional nine-to-five model, in practice it often offers fewer rights and less security.
Undeniably, the gig economy has generated employment. India currently has over 12.5 million gig workers, a figure projected to rise to nearly 23.5 million by 2030. However, amid rising unemployment, educated youth are entering this system not by choice but by compulsion. In a country that proudly speaks of its demographic dividend, trapping young people in insecure, temporary, and undignified work is deeply troubling—and profoundly shameful. It exposes a development model obsessed with the quantity of jobs rather than their quality.
The central contradiction of the gig economy lies in companies extracting full labour from workers while refusing to acknowledge a formal employer-employee relationship. By labelling workers as “independent contractors,” companies evade responsibility for job security, minimum wages, insurance, and social protection. Hire-and-fire practices, algorithmic surveillance, rating systems, and incentive-based manipulation together create an invisible cage: workers appear free, but in reality are tightly controlled. Even during strikes, solidarity is undercut through selective bonuses and surge incentives. The recording of record-high orders by a major food-delivery platform on 31 December starkly illustrates this paradox.
Encouragingly, the exploitation of gig workers has begun to receive attention in Parliament. Leaders such as Raghav Chadha and Manoj Kumar Jha have raised concerns about their precarious conditions—a welcome, though overdue, development. Without the meaningful inclusion of gig workers’ voices in policymaking, however, reforms will remain incomplete.
For the first time, recent labour reforms by the Government of India have provided a legal definition for gig and platform workers. Provisions such as a one-to-two-percent contribution by aggregator companies from their turnover to a social security fund, along with the creation of a universal account number linked to Aadhaar, mark important steps forward. Yet the critical question remains: will these measures translate into real relief, or will they remain symbolic gestures on paper? Without assured minimum income, regulated working hours, accident insurance, healthcare protection, and effective grievance-redress mechanisms, these reforms cannot be called transformative.
The strike of 31 December may not have achieved complete operational success, but it was morally and socially justified. Its purpose was not merely disruption, but exposure—of injustice, exploitation, and hypocrisy embedded in the digital economy. Gig workers made it clear that they are not merely “delivery boys,” but working citizens whose rights can no longer be ignored.
The future of the digital economy is inconceivable without gig workers. Policymakers, companies, and consumers must all engage in serious self-reflection. Corporations must accept responsibility alongside profit, governments must ensure strict enforcement of labour protections, and consumers must temper convenience with empathy. If gig workers continue to be treated as expendable tools rather than dignified workers, the crisis will extend beyond labour to the very idea of development itself—leaving a stain on the vision of a prosperous and just India.
The true test of Digital India lies in how safely and respectfully it treats its fastest-moving workers. In a rapidly expanding online economy, gig work must no longer be viewed as informal or disposable, but recognised as organised, legitimate, and dignified labour. Fair wages, safe working conditions, and social security are not acts of charity—they are fundamental rights. Corporate giants driven by profit must remember that labour is not merely a cost, but the soul of the system. Without accountability and sensitivity, digital growth will remain hollow.
If gig work is built on dignity, security, and stability, it can evolve from a symbol of compulsion into a humane and exemplary employment model—one where convenience serves not only the consumer, but justice and honour are extended to the worker as well.
