India seeks to offer its gig workers protection

This comes amid surge in its gig economy; numbers likely to hit 23.5m by 2029-2030

- Debarshi Dasgupta

On Friday evening, amid the rush of office employees returning home, Mr Bhupendra Singh sat waiting in a congested alley, next to an open drain, for his first delivery order of the day.

As a gig worker for Swiggy Instamart, a grocery delivery service, he works nine hours every night in Noida, a city adjacent to Delhi, ending his shift just before dawn.

It is hard work to earn a precarious living.

He brings home around 20,000 rupees (S$309) each month, out of which the 30-year-old must foot the bill for the petrol used by his motorcycle, pay for rent and living expenses, and send money home to his ageing parents in Uttar Pradesh's Hamirpur district.

This leaves him with no savings. "If we get some help for the future, obviously we will be happy," said Mr Singh, when asked about his financial situation.

There are an estimated 17 million gig and platform workers in India, many of whom eke out a hand-to-mouth existence just like Mr Singh.

Without social security schemes that are reserved for workers in the organised workforce, or a minimum wage guarantee, these informal workers remain vulnerable to sudden financial shocks, as well as face uncertainty in their retirement years.

With the number of such workers in India's gig economy growing in tandem with mounting reports of exploitation – safeguarding the interests of these workers has assumed importance for the Indian government.

Looking to bring these gig workers into the social security net, the government on Sept 16 asked India's platform operators to register independent "partners" working for them on the government's e-Shram portal within the next three months.