New Delhi: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had a larger-than-expected surprise for gig workers in the state. He set aside Rs 200 crore, a new law and a board under it for their welfare in the budget, announced Friday.
“The gig workers have no social benefits. In order to prevent them from exploitation, I am announcing Gig Workers Welfare Act. A gig workers’ welfare board will be formed under it. I am also allocating Rs 200 crore as gig workers welfare and development fund,” said Gehlot in the Rajasthan Assembly.
For the estimated five lakh gig workers in Rajasthan, the announcement by Gehlot carves a path of a more stable future ahead. For months now, young men and women who work as drivers and delivery agents have been voicing their concerns through various unions and associations for a social safety net.
With this announcement, Rajasthan has become the first state to act on their demands. The next step, the gig workers say, will be to ensure that the board collects a levy from the companies that employ them.
The levy is an additional charge on each trip or delivery which will be set aside for the gig workers. This money will then be used to provide provident fund, pensions, and health and accident insurance for gig workers and their families.
“We had a meeting with the gig workers 20 days ago. Many people (gig workers) from across the country had come and they demanded a law for their work. We are examining it. Whatever is possible in the purview of the law, we will do it. The companies involved in this are all international. So, we will have to see how much control the state can have over them. But we are trying to provide as many benefits to gig workers as possible,” said Sukhram Vishnoi, labour minister, Rajasthan.
The state’s department of communications and information technology has been in the process of developing an app for the last one year. The app which will be handed over to a corporation of gig workers after it’s been built will have all workers mandatorily registered on it. It will track the trips made by them and details on how the levy is to be collected.
The opposition parties, however, are sceptical of the big announcement. Calling it populist, BJP state president of Rajasthan, Satish Poonia, said that Congress is targeting the youth to woo them for the election year.
“Hardly eight months are left for the assembly elections. Any promises made now will not be met. How will the government implement anything in such a short period? Congress is only trying to distract the public,” said Poonia.
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A long fight
Gig workers are paid for each individual gig they do, such as a food delivery or a car ride, instead of a fixed monthly salary. They were earlier unable to register on the Union government’s e-Shram portal as gig work was not shown as a category there. The Code on Social Security, 2020, for the first time, recognised gig workers as unorganised sector workers and extended social security benefits to them. After this gig work was added as a category on the portal. But the code has not been enforced yet.
The companies hiring these workers skirt their responsibility as employers by calling themselves ‘aggregators’, ‘intermediaries’ or ‘facilitators’, said Ashish Singh Arora, founder, Rajasthan App Adharit Shramik Union. The gig workers are then left in the fray with no fixed income, insurance, retirement, or pension benefits.
The momentum to demand better working conditions has been building for a few years now. A window opened up when their representatives met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Telangana and Rajasthan during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“We explained the difficulties faced by the gig workers to Rahul Gandhi in Telangana and then in Rajasthan. In Rajasthan, he immediately called for a meeting with CM Ashok Gehlot and asked him to have a law protecting gig workers and make allocations for it in the budget,” said Shaik Salauddin, national general secretary, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT).
A 2022 Niti Aayog report projects that the number of gig workers in India will increase to 2.35 crore in 2030 from 77 lakh in 2020-21. The report adds that with its young population, rapid urbanisation and widespread reach of smartphones and technology, India can bring a revolution to gig work. Such work has enormous potential for job creation in the country.
“We had several meetings with the Chief Minister and senior Congress leaders where we told them how we lack any safety nets. The Rajasthan government was very receptive,” said Arora, adding that this act is the first of its kind in the world.
The gig workers’ unions and associations in Rajasthan are studying different models where workers employed in other professions have benefitted from laws offering them social protection.
A delegation of gig workers was recently in Pune to understand the Mathadi model where workers who carry heavy loads such as coolies are covered with a provident fund, hospital expenses and pensions through a levy.
Each time the labourers pick a load, a 35 per cent levy is added to the cost of the transaction. That money is then pooled and kept aside for their benefits. This law was introduced in 1969 and the benefits include services like community kitchens, education for their children and hospital expenses.
“We are demanding a similar model, but it will be app-based,” says Arora.
The initial demand of the gig workers is to charge a levy per ride or delivery which will then be collected and used for the welfare of gig workers who are registered on the app. They also want a tripartite board of employers, government and gig workers which monitors the implementation of the levy and ensures that the funds reach the workers.
It is, however, unclear if the companies like Zomato, Swiggy, Amazon, Ola, Uber, Urban Company, Flipkart will participate in either the board or agree to a levy.
Calling drivers’ well-being a priority, Uber spokesperson said that the drivers have access to on-trip insurance and micro-credits and have been advocating for gig workers’ security.
“We have been at the forefront of advocacy for social security for gig workers and have supported progressive legislation such as the Code on Social Security (2020) that was pledged by the Central Government earlier,” said the spokesperson.
ThePrint reached out to Zomato and Ola but received no response.
Also Read: Gig economy booming, workers will triple to 2.35 crore by 2030, says Niti Aayog report
Why Rajasthan?
The gig workers union members explain that since they are scattered across the country in different sectors, coming together has been a challenge.
“Nobody brought it to the government before this. Workers have unionised and they have presented solutions to their problems and the government has accepted it. This is not a political stunt,” said Arora.
The gig workers’ unions are hopeful that once the Rajasthan model is implemented, other states will follow.
“Rajasthan has a strong history of bringing out laws such as the RTI, MGNREGA and others. It will now be a state for protecting its gig workers as well,” said Salauddin.
The BJP has called the move eyewash.
“The government is claiming that they are worker-friendly. But more than 50,000 workers have recently protested in the state. They are unhappy with the government and they want to be regularised. This promise was made to them before the government was formed. By announcing a new law for gig workers, Congress will get no benefit. Their MLAs will thump tables but on ground nothing will happen,” said Ramlal Sharma, BJP MLA and party spokesperson, Rajasthan.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)