Platforms have provided many of the smaller capitalists—who would otherwise have been characterised by a low potential for financial development in India (Sau, 1984)—with a sincere opportunity to become akin to global capitalists (De Neve et al., 2023). Despite platforms and the gig work associated with them being heralded as a major advancement in the domain of labour market advancements, gig workers are yet to be accorded an equal status as other workers. They remain outside the framework of labour protections and also suffer from issues pertaining to precarious employment and social discrimination.<sup>15</sup> This is because the gig economy, in its entirety, is composed of relations of employment which are characterised by precarious payment models, unstable employment patterns and an exclusion from mainstream frameworks of social protection. Workers who work in the gig economy, especially if they are migrants to the city, suffer more from these issues because they are bereft of the socio-legal protections that administrative mechanisms provide in the country (Deb Roy, 2024b).
This chapter highlights the plight of such migrant gig workers in India focusing on those who work as delivery workers. The chapter outlines certain key aspects of the problems that migrant delivery workers face in their everyday lives in India’s major urban centres. The qualitative data presented in the chapter was collected through fieldwork conducted in Delhi (including New Delhi), Bengaluru and Hyderabad from 2022 January until 2023 December. A total of 30 semi-structured interviews— 10 in each city—had been conducted with migrant delivery workers with respondents being selected mainly through purposive and convenience sampling methods. The interviews were of 20–30 minutes duration and were mostly conducted in Hindi, Bengali and English. Out of the 30 interviewees, six were from Assam (three in Delhi, three in Bengaluru), eight from Bihar (two in Delhi, three in Bengaluru and three in Hyderabad), five from Uttar Pradesh (two in Delhi, two in Bengaluru, two in Hyderabad) nine from West Bengal (one in Delhi, two in Bengaluru, five in Hyderabad) and two from north-eastern states, one each from Manipur and Nagaland (both in Delhi). The chapter is divided into three sections.
5 MIGRANT GIG WORKERS OF INDIA’S CONSUMERIST CITIES
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<sup>15</sup> See Sarkar, K. (2021). Why UK Supreme Court’s Uber Driver Verdict Can Impact Indian Gig Workers. The Leaflet, March 10, https://theleaflet.in/why-uk-supreme-cou rts-uber-driver-verdict-can-impact-indian-gig-workers/. Also see Sakunia, S. (2021). Hands that deliver food are struggling to feed themselves. The Leaflet, August 27, https://thelea flet.in/hands-that-deliver-food-are-struggling-to-feed-themselves/ [Accessed 04.07.2024].