How much Gig is India’s Gig work?
If you can't say no without penalty, is it really gig work?
Before we begin: Ordinary Analysis is my notebook of random-but-reasoned observations. It’s free, always will be, and you can get it in your inbox with a single click - subscribe.
There has been an ongoing debate about gig work in Indian public policy circles. It entered the mainstream when AAP MP Raghav Chadha raised the issue in Parliament 1. I remember having an involuntary eye-roll moment then. Give me a break.
Lakhs of people have joined gig work in India, not because it is aspirational, but because there are no better alternatives available. This is the best one can do in a weak job market. Imagine what they would be doing without the gig work? And if we are being honest, politicians and policymakers have collectively failed to create more stable employment opportunities in the first place.
Since then, the issue has resurfaced multiple times, most prominently during the nationwide protest on 31st December. I have read articles, listened to podcasts, and consumed viewpoints across the spectrum. But after skimming through all of that, I kept coming back to one uncomfortable conclusion.
Most Indian gig platforms preserve the risk of gig work but quietly erode the freedom that defines it. In effect, they combine the worst of two worlds. And this aspect has not been discussed nearly enough.
Before going further, a few words on what gig work is supposed to mean.
Gig work does have genuine benefits. It has a low entry barrier. It allows people to participate in the labour market quickly. And, most importantly, it promises autonomy over when you work and what work you accept. This was discussed at length in an episode of Everything Is Everything, where Amit Varma and Ajay Shah unpacked the economic logic behind gig work2. I will not go into depth here. But this is a fantastic episode to listen to.
Another excellent piece was written by Fahad Hasan, who explored why gig work exists, the value it creates, and the reasoning behind recent boycott calls and why it was misguided3.
Most debates I have seen fall into two buckets. Either moral binaries of good versus bad, or thoughtful analyses of why the gig economy emerged and what problem it solves.
But my concern lies elsewhere.
Is India’s gig economy actually gig?
Consider this example. Soumyarendra Barik, a journalist with The Indian Express, worked as a delivery partner for three days to understand worker pain points 4. After rejecting four orders, his account on Swiggy was blocked for a significant duration. On Zomato, his ID was disabled for fifteen minutes. The apps even use oddly stressful notification sounds when an order is not accepted, according to him.
In another podcast report, a gig worker described how his ID was disabled simply because he took a lunch break.
These were genuine WTF moments for me. Not because they were shocking, but because they strike at the very definition of gig work.
If I am a gig worker, I should have the autonomy to decide when I work and which work I accept. That autonomy is not a nice-to-have feature. It is the defining feature of gig work. If rejecting three or four orders leads to penalties, throttling, or account suspension, then in what meaningful sense is this a gig?
In permanent jobs, control is explicit. There are fixed hours, structured responsibilities, and KPIs to meet. In return, there is security, predictability, and benefits.
What we seem to have built instead is a system that borrows the control mechanisms of permanent employment and combines them with the insecurity of gig work.
And it is why I think we need far more honest and different conversations.
The current debate asks: ‘How do we protect gig workers?’ But that assumes they are gig workers. The evidence suggests otherwise.
Real gig work, where workers genuinely choose when and whether to work, has meaningful benefits. But when you penalize workers for declining orders, disable accounts for lunch breaks, and throttle access for assertion of choice, you are not running a free marketplace. You are essentially managing employees.
Either give workers genuine autonomy (the ability to say no without algorithmic punishment) or classify them as employees with corresponding protections. What we have now isn’t a compromise or an imperfect equilibrium. It’s the worst of both worlds: the insecurity of gig work combined with the subordination of employment.
This is not gig work. It’s the employment relationship stripped of obligations.
If you enjoyed this issue, I would love to have you join my regular readers. Subscribe below to get future issues delivered straight to your inbox. It would mean the world to me knowing you’d like to read my writing in your inbox.
Ordinary thoughts, shared with hope. Pass it along if it resonated.