The value of the jobs done by gig employees may be worth more than $250 billion in transaction value. Construction, manufacturing, retail, transportation, and logistics are likely to be the four main sectors in India, accounting for more than 70 million on-demand workers.
In the “long term,” India’s gig economy, which has gained traction in recent years thanks to the growth of startups and internet companies like Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, Uber, Urban Company, Flipkart, Amazon, Dunzo, and others, is expected to serve up to 90 million jobs in the non-farm market. According to a study by Boston Consulting Group and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the transaction value of the amount of work done by gig staff could be worth more than $250 billion, and the overall gig economy could contribute an additional 1.25 percent to India’s GDP.
On-demand jobs with little or no formal contracting are referred to as gig employment. About 200 million people are believed to be active in the gig economy worldwide.
The long-term potential of India’s gig economy is estimated to be around 35 million skilled and semi-skilled jobs within industry sectors, around 5 million jobs in shared services like facility management, transportation, and accounting, around 12 million household demand for various services, and around 37 million unskilled jobs across the economy.
Construction, manufacturing, retail, transportation, and logistics, on the other hand, may be the four largest sectors in India, accounting for more than 70 million planned gig jobs.
Due to the country’s wide informal economy and “casual workers” section, which includes migrant farmworkers, daily-wage construction labourers, and household help, Gig jobs have existed in India for decades. Although personal recommendations and offline networks continue to aid in the sourcing and filling of such on-demand workers, the use of technology and the internet has made employer-employee matching much simpler.
Importantly, while convenience and flexibility are two advantages of the gig economy, there have been questions raised about minimum wage standards, job safety, and consumer rights.
The working conditions for gig workers were found to be better at home services startup Urban Company, according to the UK-based FairWork Foundation, which was funded by The Oxford Internet Institute and released its second India study on the labour standards in India’s “platform” economy in December 2020. Flipkart (via its logistics arm eKart) was ranked second, down from first the year before. According to the survey, Amazon’s logistics services Amazon Transportation Services (ATS), Ola, BigBasket, and Housejoy were ranked near the bottom, with Swiggy, Uber, and Zomato having the worst working conditions for their “partners.”
Equal Pay, Fair Conditions, Fair Contracts, Fair Management, and Fair Representation were among the five areas of fair platform work covered in the study.
“In addition to healthy profits, Urban Company partners receive a slew of incentives, including free training, access to standardized equipment and goods, free PPE and safety gear, loans, life, injury, and health insurance, and so on. “It’s wonderful to see that the Fairwork Foundation has appreciated our efforts,” Abhiraj Bhal, Co-founder of Urban Business, told Financial Express Online. According to the report Unlocking the Potential of the Gig Economy in India by BCG and MSDF, India’s gig economy could deliver as many as 24 million jobs in the near-medium term through technology-based gig platforms. Agriculture and related sectors employ over 40% of the country’s labour force or more than 210 million people out of a total labour force of more than 500 million. The non-farm industries account for the remaining 290 million people.
