In a roundtable organised by NGO Janpahal and the Gig Workers Association on 15 May 2025 at New Delhi, various stakeholders exchanged views on the state of affairs of the gig workers across India.
The testimonies shared by workers in the meeting pointed towards “harsh realities of work” in the sector.
A statement issued after the meeting said, “The dictatorial and insensitive attitude of the companies is a regular feature in their life.
There are no avenues of redress. Their IDs are blocked, and they are thrown out of work for the smallest mistakes or no mistakes. Society also looks at them with disrespect.
Most of these workers are not yet organised, and there are only a few initiatives to organise them.
Companies are thwarting any attempts by the workers to organise and unionise themselves. Any initiative for organising, protesting and raising demands is met with termination of work”.
Janpahal secretary Dharmendra Kumar said the outcome of the meeting would be sent to the policymakers so that a more equitable gig economy could be created in the country.
Representatives from the Union and State governments and international organisations addressed the meeting.
Editor’s Note
The state of affairs of the Gig workers remains despicable, despite their hard work and contribution to the society for the last decade.
What began initially with drivers of cab hailing apps such as Ola and Uber in the early 2010s slowly moved to delivery partners of food tech apps such as Swiggy, Zomato and others.
Post Covid-19, urban centres across India witnessed a hyper-growth of Quick Commerce apps such as Zepto and Blinkit among dozens of others.
The temporary staff hired by these companies are (rightfully) termed as Gig workers, as the entire opportunity was presented as a part-time job to fulfill additional financial needs by working beyond regular office hours.
It is interesting that in a country like India where there are thousands of full time jobs on offer – across shop floors in factories to retail stores, warehouses and so on, several youth, especially in their mid 20s prefer to be a part of the Gig Economy.
The fact that most of them have not completed their basic & higher education and are not job-worthy is another issue that is plaguing the country at large.
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