Unlocking the Gig Economy in India (Edition-II) ISBN: 978-93-49468-09-2

Income Volatility and Financial Security of Gig Workers in India

Author: Ms. Moupiya Bose & Dr. Uttiya Basu

Gig workings, one of the newest form of employment is popularizing across the globe in the last decade with the surge of digitiztion. It is redefining the employment structure and reframing the labour market. Gig working, a task based, short term job assignments which are mostly service oriented in nature often relies on digital platforms. Though at its core lies flexibility and autonomy, it often poses a risk of vulnerability and financial insecurity. A large employable population of India like is opting gig works due to limited employment opportunity in traditional sectors, rise of Q-commerce platforms and flexibility. Companies operating in the Indian soil are preferring gig workers due to lesser operating cost and workforce volume regulation facility. Further, it discusses about the financial security of the giggers, the associated key challenges and ways to overcome these. The key challenges include but not limited to income volatility, instability in work assignments, unavailability of safety nets from employers and limited financial capability of workers which hinders the process of attaining financial security by them. As proposed herein, these can be overcomed by reforming the platform policies, giving social benefits securities, increasing collective bargaining power of the gig workers, labour protections laws enforced by government, spread of digital financial literacy among the giggers through workshops, seminars or community programs and many more. Implementing a fair wage system and decent working condition is also needed to boost financial stability and reduce gender biasness among giggers. Further, a conceptual framework is proposed that can be empirically tested to assess the impact of financial capability on financial security through financial resilience. In conclusion, the chapter vouches for adoption of a multi-stakeholder approach; bringing together governments, platform companies, labor unions and financial institutions to safeguard the long-term economic well-being of gig workers in the digital age.

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