Even as India’s online delivery app businesses are booming, the bleak situation of the sector’s “delivery partners” – i.e. the gig workers of the online delivery platforms – is going largely ignored by India’s corporate-friendly government.
On December 31, delivery app Blinkit’s CEO Albinder Dhindsa cited the company’s sales data that day to describe it as the company’s “highest ever orders day.” In a series of posts on X, he went on to detail the “biggest party order,” the most popular items ordered, etc. on the app.
Responding to these celebratory tweets, standup comedian, Kunal Kamra, who is known for his political satire and social activism, questioned Dhindsa about the “wages” of Blinkit delivery workers. “Can you also enlighten us with data on the average wages you paid your ‘Delivery Partners’ in 2024 …” he wrote on X.
With no reply forthcoming from the Blinkit CEO, Kamra reminded people of the “dark side” of the delivery app business. While “enjoying the convenience of quick commerce,” platform owners exploit gig workers. “They aren’t creating jobs,” he pointed out, decrying online delivery platforms as “landlords without owning any land.”
The issues Kamra has raised are not new. The gig economy is notorious for its lack of transparency and the low earnings and long working hours of its “delivery partners.” It is accused of exploiting the desperation of India’s ocean of unemployed youth. While the latter are made to work long hours for low wages, the online app reaps huge profits.
This is not the first time that Kamra has burst the celebratory bubble of the start-up ecosystem. In October 2024, he drew attention to how customers are being cheated with poor quality Ola Electric bikes. Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola Electric, a start-up, resorted to an online slugfest with Kamra when the latter exposed ugly facts about the working of new tech start-ups.
The International Labor Organization’s latest India Employment Report 2024 points to alarming levels of unemployment in the country. Youth account for 83 percent of India’s unemployed labor force. In 2022, the unemployment rate among educated youth was higher than for those who could barely read and write. Consider this: 29 percent of graduates and 18.4 percent of those who had completed secondary education were unemployed, compared to 3 percent of the uneducated who were jobless.
The gig economy has been fobbing off criticism of the sector with the plea that it is providing employment and creating jobs. However, commenting on the emergence of the gig economy, ILO’s India Employment Report states that gig work has been expanding in India “but it is largely informal work with hardly any social security provisions.”
While drawing attention to the exploitative practices of online platforms, Kamra highlighted the absence of worker protection legislation and any binding labor laws. In his series of posts on X, he cited how in most cases, these workers, labeled as “partners” and not employees, did not even have copies of their contracts. He questioned why the Labor Ministry was not taking note of these exploitative practices.
Kamra’s tweets generated considerable popular traction, with several people sharing the inhumane work conditions of the delivery partners. Competing home delivery apps promise deliveries within 10-minute deadlines, compelling delivery workers to race through traffic, and exposing them to the risk of road accidents. Job insecurity and earnings below the minimum wage after accounting for expenses were some of the issues highlighted by X users.
Under the existing labor code, gig workers are neither classified as employees nor covered under any worker welfare norms. They are relegated to the largely unregulated unorganized sector.
India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is corporate- and industry-friendly and has rarely taken steps that will cut into profit margins. It has been accused of “brazenly dismantling labor protection,” and BJP governments, whether at the center or states, have not taken any concrete action for the benefit of gig workers or their social security.
It is not as if the BJP-led government is unaware of the exploitation of gig workers. A 2022 report from NITI Aayog, the Indian government’s economic think tank, noted that the “lack of job security, irregular wages, and uncertain employment status for workers” pose significant challenges for gig or platform work.
On the other hand, the opposition Congress is taking up the cause of gig workers. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been consistently interacting with Uber drivers and online delivery app “partners” and highlighting their plight. Soon after Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, the long march across the length and breadth of the country, the Congress government in Rajasthan brought in a law for the security of gig workers. The landmark Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act, 2023, levies a “welfare fee” on all transactions on online platforms, and gig workers and aggregators/ online platforms are to be registered with the state and entitled to social security schemes. Two other Congress-ruled states, Karnataka and Telangana, have begun taking steps toward enacting a law for the welfare of gig workers.
However, enacting laws may not be enough. Unfortunately, after the BJP took over the government in Rajasthan, the Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers Act has not come into effect. The required rules for implementing the Act have not been notified. The government is allegedly dragging its feet over implementing it.
Regrettably, social security and fair wages for workers are being held hostage to the corporate-friendly politics of most state governments.