Engendering the Gig Economy in India - Policy Brief

Abstract

In recent years, the advancements in the field of information and communication technology (ICTD) have further casualized the market with digitally driven platforms of work. While labour has been devalued through neoliberal economic restructuring, the ‘sharing eonomy’ defined by companies born from information technology platform have changed the landscape of labour. The result of this by-product of neo-liberalisation is that the speed, scope, and scale have changed considerably, with jobs lasting as little as few minutes. This new industry has exacerbated neoliberalism’s industrial relations to the point where a new term, the ‘Gig Economy’, has arisen to describe that workers now have ‘‘gigs’’ instead of jobs (Zwick, 2018; Bracha and Burke, 2018; Yaraghi and Ravi, 2017). The sharing or the gig economy is largely an urban phenomenon; it is fast becoming a primary means through which urban residents access desired goods and services, transforming urban economies (Davidson and Infranca, 2016). In the neo-liberal framework, the gig economy has opened up new forms of work aided by technology – ability to earn well, built on the promise of ‘flexibility’ to choose ones work hours.