GIG WORKERS OF INDIA

 Who is a gig worker?

Gig worker is a person who performs work or participates in a work arrangement and earns from such activities outside of traditional employer employee relationship . India's gig work force comprises 15 million workers employed across industries such as software , shared services and professional services.

What is a gig economy?

It is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organizations create contract with independent workers for short term engagements.

Importance of gig economy

According  to NITI  Aayog 

India's gig work force is expected to expand to 2.35 crore by 2029-30 . Also in 2020-2021 7.7 million workers are engaged in gig economy .They constituted 2.6% of the non agricultural work force or 1.5% of the total workforce in India.

• Worker need not sit at a fixed location.
• Changing work approach.
• Emergence of start up culture.
• Rising demand of contractual employees.

Issues faced by gig workers

• Gig workers do not get benefit from labour regulations pertaining to wages ,hours, working conditions and right to collective bargaining.
• Varying degrees of vertical and horizontal skills mismatch can be observed on online web based platforms 
• Challenges faced due to terms of contract.
• Workers engaged in employment with digital platforms, particularly women workers in the app based taxi and delivery sectors face various occupational safety and health risks.

Way forward 

Gig economy has the potential to create jobs for India's large work force , especially the low skilled workers .The government must take appropriate steps to support the expansion of gig economy platforms at the same time the investors of gig workers must provide them proper working conditions as well as social security benefits. Achieving the balance will need some effort from all stake holders.