Challenges and Opportunities in the gig economy in a post-COVID world –
Investigating the interactions between gig workers and platforms
Context
India’s gig economy is set to triple over the next three to four years to 24 million jobs from the existing eight million. Amidst shifts in ways of working, digital platforms have emerged as enablers for employment creation. Recent studies suggest that this digital revolution will address the inefficiencies of the unorganized sector, formalize work engagements and increase employment/income-generation opportunities for all. The future of work involves remote, digitized interactions, and non-traditional working arrangements, which have been brought to the present by gig work. Moreover, it has also created an increased opportunity for women workers by providing them with the flexibility to schedule their work hours, and allowing them to take up work in geographies of choice.
However, although flexible and attractive, gig work has limitations, including limited support to advance in a job, the undefined or uncertain nature of employment, unstable policy support, lack of social security, and other factors.
To build ecosystem knowledge of the existing policy landscape and the manner in which it either hampers or enables gig work, Sattva – in collaboration with The Asia Foundation (TAF) – conducted a landscape study to understand the ways in which the current policy and regulatory frameworks impact the ecosystem in post-COVID India. The study explores opportunities and challenges for gig workers and platforms to develop a holistic understanding of the space and provide recommendations to advance the platform gig economy in a sustainable and inclusive way.
To answer these questions, Sattva conducted desk-based research, key informant interviews with a varied set of stakeholders, and round table discussions with distinguished experts in the field to validate research findings. Additionally, the study also executed a mixed-methods survey with over 600 platform gig-workers across the cities of Bangalore (tier-1) and Lucknow (tier-2), specifically focusing on workers in three industries:
1. Transport and Logistics Services
2. Food and Beverage Delivery Services
3. Personal and Homecare Services
You can access more details and insights about the study below.
To save a copy, you can click on the ‘Download’ link on the right side of this page.
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Sattva has been working with various non-profits and social organisations as well as corporate clients to help them define their social impact goals. Our focus is to solve critical problems and find scalable solutions. We assist organisations in formulating their long-term social impact strategy by strategically aligning with business to provide meaningful solutions to social issues.
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