The story so far: The Rajasthan government recently released the draft Rajasthan Platform Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill, 2023 — the first legislation of its kind in India outlining social security and welfare measures — and invited feedback from stakeholders, including the State’s approximately three lakh gig workers, till July 7.
The demand for a legal framework echoes throughout India’s 77-lakh-strong gig workforce (expected to swell to 2.34 crore by 2030). Gig workers, portrayed by many companies as ‘partners’ partaking in an ‘economic revolution’, often work unregulated hours, inadequate wages, do not have social security, and face discrimination and harassment at the hands of both companies and customers.
Shaik Salauddin, the National General Secretary of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT), says the present Bill is both a “milestone” and “mirror,” reflecting the status of gig workers in India and the worldoperating as they do in a system shaped by algorithms and facing limited economic opportunities. Experts and unions, however, say the Bill needs to be tightened in language and scope, so that it lifts them to a place where no company or algorithm decides who gets work and how they are compensated.
