In this context, where the labour issues faced by lower class Bengali migrant workers in bastis intersected with social citizenship and livelihood crises beyond the workplace, and with the growing realization of the need to articulate demands to the State—both in their home province and the host province—the continued civic and political mobilization of Bengali tech workers paved the way for the formation of the IMFK on September 19th, 2019. Affiliated with the traditional trade union CITU, they continued their organising efforts in various other lower-class Bengali migrant workers bastis, delivered union membership card distribution, asserting the identity of migrant workers as rights-bearing individuals in the city, further strengthening their collective presence and advocating for the rights and welfare of the workers. By the end of July 2021, the IMFK’s union expanded to bastis such as Munnekollal and Brookfield, further solidifying its presence and influence in the migrant worker communities.
8 Gig Worker Union and the Migrant Bastis<sub>:</sub> The Trans<sub>v</sub>ersion of Migrant Networks into Gig Worker Networks
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, rag pickers and other informal workers living in lower-class migrant labour bastis faced severe unemployment and state neglect. While many of them had relied on informal kith and kin networks to find work, the pandemic and ensuing lockdown exacerbated their already precarious situation, leaving them in dire conditions. This led many in the bastis to opt for location-based DLPs, either to supplement their income or as full-time work. As our participant Hari said:
“...I also have to send money home. The pandemic made life difficult, so I took up a job in Swiggy [food delivery platform]. I used to rent electric bikes from the stand, do my duty, and then put it back. Now I got a second-hand motorcycle.”
Among our participants, many lower-class Bengali male migrants entered location-based DLPs for food delivery and ridesourcing, either by renting electric bikes or finding agents who sold Uber IDs and cabs in exchange for fixed rent or commission. As lower-class migrants, they often did not own their vehicles, so they had to rely on third parties to manage their access to these resources, facing not only fees and commissions to platforms, but also to other intermediaries. This created conditions for double exploitation, with platform and beyond platform. Furthermore, many women from these bastis entered location-based DLPs such as Urban Company, working as beauticians and domestic workers. However, their onboarding process was far from easy as many had anticipated. As our participant Jabbar explained:
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