CHENNAI: E-commerce platforms employ over 37 lakh gig workers followed by the logistics sector (15 lakh) and BFSI and manufacturing sectors (10 lakh each) as the gig manpower rose to 120 lakh in FY25, showed the Economic Survey report, which was tabled by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Thursday.
The gig manpower rose by 55% from 77 lakh in FY21, driven by increase in smartphone penetration to over 80 crore users and 15 billion UPI transactions per month. The gig workers represent 2% of the total workforce and are likely to constitute 6.7% of the workforce by 2029-30 outpacing overall employment in India, contributing Rs 2.35 lakh crore to the GDP.
The report also said that about 40% of gig workers earn below Rs 15,000 per month. It noted that though the gig economy is booming, income volatility persists, leading to challenges in accessing credit.
“Financial inclusion also lags behind for gig workers. They have ‘thin-file’ credit access, which remains a concern. Platform algorithms control work allocation, performance monitoring, wages, and supply-demand matching, raising concerns about algorithmic biases and burnout. Limited skilling and fears of job losses due to technological advances such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) add to worker vulnerability,” it said.
The report also states that the new labour codes are one of the first steps towards regularising gig workers and giving support. The labour codes have formally recognised gig and platform workers, expanding social security, welfare funds, and benefit portability. Realising that platforms became essential gig-market infrastructure for finding workers and work, the policy should address concerns over fees, algorithms and worker protections through competition rules, data access and algorithmic transparency, it said. Policies should address reorganising social contracts so that workers are benefited fairly, it added.
“Policy can reduce the cost gap between regular and gig work by limiting incentives to avoid mandatory benefits and by setting minimum per-hour or per-task earnings (including waiting time), encouraging formal employment and raising incomes for low- and medium-skilled gig workers,” it said.
Shivam Kunal, Senior Associate, B. Shanker Associates LLP, said, “The survey adopts a distinctly normative stance by treating platform labour as a regulatory subject rather than a purely private contract. Its proposal for a minimum earnings floor, calibrated to include waiting time, implicitly recognizes that risk allocation in gig models has been skewed against labour. The recommendation on algorithmic transparency is legally consequential, since algorithmic allocation and deactivation mirror managerial prerogatives in substance, if not in form."
He added, "By invoking fairness, dignity, and real choice, the survey aligns gig regulation with established constitutional labour jurisprudence on livelihood. Its stress on portable social security and upskilling indicates a move toward structural safeguards rather than episodic welfare. The underlying message is clear: where platforms exercise economic control, the law cannot remain indifferent to corresponding obligations.”