With the employment of an estimated eight million people in an industry built on the back of the smartphone revolution, “gig” work It has become a major source of jobs for the youth in India. It goes without saying that in a country where informal labor and unemployment have defined the nature of the jobs market over the past decade, the gig economy has been a profitable outlet of employment. This is especially true for youth and migrant workers, as they want a ready and quick means to secure finance and flexible hours – an option increasingly used by informal workers who do gigs to moonlight. With increasing smartphone usage and reliance on apps for daily needs and purposes, the gig economy is only set to flourish in terms of usage and opportunities. Nevertheless, increasing competition between platforms and the availability of a cheap labor force have reduced incentives for gig workers, even as their workload and the uncertainty of working hours have increased significantly relative to pay, which It has also become insufficient for many people. Compounding this is the fact that gig workers are not recognized as “workers” but as partners by most aggregation platforms and lack any social security or related benefits as “workers” , working conditions have become increasingly harsh in an industry. The child is no more. This is now evident from the growing number of flash strikes by gig workers.
seen in this light Rajasthan Government’s decision to introduce the Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill, 2023, should be welcomed even though it will be introduced before the assembly elections later this year. While the draft bill envisages a “welfare board” that will design welfare policies and hear grievances of gig workers on a piece rate basis, the specifics of the policies and how they can benefit workers are still unclear. Is. The board is expected to work towards a social welfare fund, which will be financed by a cess on digital transactions done by consumers on platforms that use gig worker labour. This schema is not unfamiliar – platform workers in the transport sector in Thailand and Malaysia, for example, benefit from health and accident insurance as well as social security, which is financed by a 2% deduction for each ride. Recently, the central government passed the Social Security Code (one of the four labor codes), which also allowed some social security for gig workers, but the scheme remains only on paper without proper implementation. If Rajasthan’s pioneering draft bill comes into force, other states may be forced to use similar measures to ensure the welfare of gig workers.