Women Workers in the Gig Economy in India : An Exploratory Study

Abstract

While post-Fordism and neo-liberalism changed the way labour was viewed, technology and wide spread digitization has built upon the same principles, giving way to a new form of work – the Gig Economy. Over the last decade, ‘on-demand’ work guided by app-based platforms such as Uber, Ola, Urban Company, Zomato, etc. have become fairly common in urban India. These platforms have built upon the existing large informal economy fuelled by growing digitization and affordability of gadgets such as smartphones. Gig economy thrives upon the idea of ‘flexibility’, allowing people to work as ‘independent contractors’ who have the ‘choice’ of working when they want to, how they want to and where they want to.