Date: 12/09/2022

Relevance: GS-2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Relevance: GS-3: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment

Key Phrases: Gig Economy, Challenges in Gig economy, Gig Economy In pandemic, Contribution of gig workers, ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’.

Context:

• In recent times gig economy has contributed extensively to generation of casual employment and lakhs of people have become financially independent over the last couple of years owing to the gig economy.

Background:

• Recently the NITI Aayog released a report titled, ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’.
• The report suggested that the gig economy was at its resilient best during the Covid-19 induced lockdowns and because of gig workers, many citizens in the urban areas managed to get essential supplies in the safety of their homes.
• The report suggested gig work could help transcend the space and time constraints that normally affect employer-employee relationships and offer choices to employees and opportunities to differently-abled people, women etc. to enter the workforce.

India’s latest Gig Statistics

• The NITI Aayog report estimates that the number of gig workers will increase from 77 lakh (1.5 percent of the total workforce) in 2020-21 to 2.35 crores (4.1 per cent of the total livelihood) by 2029-30.
• The gig workers are employed in many non-agricultural sectors such as retail trade and sales (around 27 lakh) and transportation sector (about 13 lakh).
• At present about 47% of the gig work is in medium skilled jobs, about 22% in high skilled, and about 31% in low skilled jobs.
• As per the Report, these sectors had registered a significant addition of workers between 2011-12 and 2019-20.
  • Even the education sector has seen a 51 per cent increase in gig work.

The flip side of gig economy: potential exploitation in the garb of employment

• Gig work may enhance the commodification of labour as
  • There is a lack of opportunities for learning and development of gig workers.
  • Employers do not provide any type of protection (social security or otherwise)to gig workers
  • Absence of caring for their dependent families (such as maternity benefits), and no provision of having flexible work arrangements.
• The platform economy which monetizes skills of workers through their platforms treats the gig workers as expendables and there is hardly any motivation for the platform owner to invest in their learning or career development.
• Over time, monotonous work with little learning, limited security, and the absence of any rise in the organizational and social hierarchy can lead to acute frustration among the workers
• Also there is no legal support to form unions and thus these workers can’t negotiate their working and monetary conditions and feel exploited.

Weak Legislative framework and associated challenges

• The labour codes do not strengthen the gig workers; rather some labour codes exclude them entirely thus making them vulnerable to exploitation.
• The gig workers are only protected under the Social Security Code, 2020 with very few provisions
• Gig workers in transport and last mile retail and trade services work in very precarious conditions.
  • Researchers have estimated that many of them spend 10-15 hours with their devices on roads and bringing forth many health concerns.
• Many gig workers in the personal care sector, often report behavioural misconduct at the client location but the lack of proper definition of “workplace” or “workplace safety norms” often leaves them helpless
• A report by the Boston Consulting Group estimates that about 78 percent of gig workers earn less than ₹20,000 per month but still are also excluded from the Code of Wages, 2019 and the Industrial Relations Code 2020
  • This is also in direct violation of the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

Way Forward

• Government should empower the gig workers by extending the Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020 to them.
• Provisions of Occupational Disease and Work Accident Insurance:
  • The gig workers may be provided with various occupational and disease insurances which can be offered in collaboration with the private sector or government, as envisaged under the Code on Social Security, 2020.
• Support to workers in a Situation of Irregularity of Work:
  • Gig platforms and firms may consider providing income support to workers through assured minimum earnings and social security from income loss in the wake of uncertainty or irregularity in work.
• Contingency Cover out of a Corpus Fund:
  • In the pandemic a mobility platform created a corpus of INR 20 Cr, called the “Drive the Driver Fund”, in order to support auto-rickshaw, cab, and taxi drivers to mitigate the effects of the lockdown on their income.
  • Such measures and initiatives can be used to help support gig and platform workers in contingencies.

Conclusion

• The scope of the gig economy in a vast country like India is enormous.
• The government needs to come out with comprehensive legislation to empower and motivate many young people to take gig work.
• With a population of over 1.3 billion, and a majority of them below the age of 35, relying on the “gig economy” is perhaps the only way to create employment for a large semi-skilled and unskilled workforce.
• Therefore, the need of the hour is to hand-hold this sector and help it grow and for that to happen we need policies and processes that should clarify how the sector should function.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. Gig economy has the potential to address unemployment challenges in India provided legislative and implementation lacunas are fixed, elaborate. Also comment on possible contribution of the gig economy to reap the rewards of India's demographic dividend. (250 words).