Gig Workers in India

Context

A survey on Gig workers found that 85% of them work above 8 hours a day as drivers and riders and within that, 21% work sweat it out for more than 12 hours a day.

Major Recommendations of the Report

• It endorsed that governments and regulators rename the gig, platform and e-trade workers as “gig” is something taken up for a short period.
• The survey report said that “e-commerce workers” could be a better nomenclature to deal with them because, without the final-mile transport by an individual, e-commerce can not feature.
• The file also endorsed policies to make sure that corporations establish honest and transparent price structures to defend gig workers from being underpaid or exploited by means of businesses.
• It additionally stated that charge of a minimum wage to platform workers will help guarantee a hard and fast issue in the income.
• Commenting on the times of blockading the IDs of workers, such practices have to now not be allowed and IDs of workers cannot be indefinitely blocked.
• The report requested systems to address rising voices of income insufficiency and respond to worker needs along with decreasing the amount of fee they charge in line with transaction or making separate bills for workers’ gasoline invoice, which continues inflating as fuel prices upward push.

Gig Economy

• A gig economic system is a free market system wherein organisations hire or contract workers for a short span of time.
• Simply positioned, the positions are temporary to satisfy the organisation’s necessities by having short-time period engagements.
• Startups like Ola, Uber, Zomato, and Swiggy have established themselves as the main source of the gig economy in India.

Gig Worker

• According to the Code on Social Security, 2020 (India), “A gig worker is a person who plays work or participates in work arrangements and earns from such sports, out of doors of the conventional employer-employee dating.”
• They are impartial contractors, on-line platform workers, agreement organization workers, on-name people and transient people.

What is the Size of the Gig Economy in India?

• A NITI Aayog study on “India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy” has expected that at gift, about forty seven in keeping with cent of the gig works is in medium-skilled jobs, about 22 in step with cent in excessive professional, and approximately 31 per cent in low-professional jobs.
• These figures imply the significance of the gig working community in the Indian economy.
• Ensuring the consolation and security of this community is making an investment in a more innovative and prosperous future.
• Research studies by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have indicated that participation inside the gig economy is better in developing countries(5-12 percent) versus evolved economies (1-4 percent).
• Most of these jobs are in decrease-income task-sorts which includes deliveries, ridesharing, microtasks, care and well being.
• These studies in addition estimate that in 2020-21, seventy seven lakh workers had been engaged in the gig economy. 
• The gig worker is expected to extend to 2.35 crore workers by way of 2029-30.

What is the Average Age/Income of Gig Workers in India?

• The median age of Indian gig workers is 27 and their common monthly income is Rs 18,000.
• Of these, approximately seventy one in line with cent are the sole breadwinners in their families. Additionally, gig workers perform with a mean family length of four.Four.

Challenges Faced by of Gig Workers

• While platform companies have created avenues of employment, it has regularly been marred through low wages, unequal gender participation, and a lack of possibility for upward mobility within an enterprise.
• This has induced protests from workers at companies like Swiggy, Zomato, Ola, Uber, and Urban organisation, among others.
• Gig workers are normally hired through businesses on a contractual foundation and aren’t taken into consideration by their personnel.
• As a result, they do not receive some of the advantages that an on-roll employee of the agency may have.
• This way they frequently do not acquire advantages like paid ill and informal leaves, travel and housing allowances, and provident fund financial savings, among different things.

What Needs to be completed in Order to Improve the Living Standards of these Gig Workers?

• Fiscal Incentives:

• • • NITI Aayog in its report ”India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy” has stated that monetary incentives such as tax-breaks or startup grants can be furnished for corporations that provide livelihood possibilities wherein ladies represent a considerable component in their workers.

• Retirement Benefits:

• • • The file also encouraged organisations adopt policies that offer vintage age or retirement plans and advantages, and other coverage cover for contingencies consisting of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
    • Such plans and guidelines may be envisaged below the Code on Social Security, 2020.
    • Businesses need to recall imparting income help to workers as it might be a “vital step in providing confident minimal income and social protection from income loss within the wake of uncertainty or irregularity in work”.
    • It also suggests imparting paid sick leave to people other than insurance cover.

• The Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act 2023:

• • Recently, the Rajasthan State Assembly passed the Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act 2023.
  • Under the Act, a board will be installed to ensure gig workers’ registration and welfare, addressing their vulnerabilities and presenting a platform for collective bargaining and negotiations.
  • The board can serve as an independent grievance redress mechanism.
  • The Act additionally has a provision of establishing a social security fund funded through a rate on each transaction.

Source: The Indian express

UPSC Mains Practice Questions

Q.Examine the role of ‘Gig Economy’ in the booming economy of India. (150 words)

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