The rapid expansion of the gig or platform economy over the past decade has provided growing opportunities for India’s young population. It’s hardly surprising that this segment of the economy has seen the fastest growth in workforce—from 2.5 million in 2011-12 to nearly 13 million in the current fiscal, and is predicted to grow to 23 million by the end of the decade, according to NITI Aayog estimates. With such opportunities opening up for India’s youth, there are heightened expectations that the country has finally reached the stage from where demographic dividend can be reaped.
It may, however, be pointed out that the realisation of demographic dividend critically depends on the workforce’s ability to increase productivity under conditions that the International Labour Organization terms “decent work”. This implies that for India’s young workforce to progress, it is necessary to examine their working conditions so that appropriate policy interventions can be formulated.
Over the past two years, the NITI Aayog and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) provided similar perspectives on the ever-expanding platform economy, though they have focused on two distinct aspects. The NITI Aayog report, ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’, and the NCAER report, ‘Socio-economic Impact Assessment of Food Delivery Platform Workers’, convey similar messages. One, it confirms that the gig and platform economy creates opportunities for India’s youth and is the basis of reaping demographic dividend. Two, there is a move towards formalisation of the informal workforce, and it therefore acts as a tool for social protection. It’s a wonder how these reports could project such a cheery image, sidestepping discussions on the precarious nature of their work.
The reality of the working and living conditions of app-based workers has recently been unveiled in a report by the People’s Association In Grassroots Action and Movement (PAIGAM), University of Pennsylvania and the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers. The report is a significant contribution to the understanding of this segment of workers for it is based on responses of over 5,000 drivers and delivery persons in eight cities. It shows the working conditions of these workers do not conform to the criteria of “decent work” that the ILO says involves “opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for all, better prospects for personal development and social integration”, among other things.
How do their working conditions deviate from the ILO norms and what are the implications? That app-based drivers have excessively long working hours is common knowledge, but what this latest report does is provide an assessment of the length of their working day. Over 83 percent of the respondents worked for over 10 hours a day, and close to 60 percent worked for over 12 hours. As many as 31 percent of the drivers reported that their average working day was in excess of 14 hours.
So the working day of an overwhelming majority of app-based workers contravenes the ILO Convention on Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, one of the earliest norms of the organisation. It sets a general standard of working hours that are not expected to exceed 48 hours a week, with a maximum of eight hours per day. In the Indian context, the Factories Act provides a yardstick—it indicates that a work day cannot exceed nine hours.
The rationale for stipulating the length was to find a proper balance between work and leisure that has long been considered a sine qua non for achieving higher productivity. It is empirically proven that working hours tend to decrease when incomes rise and people can afford more of the things they enjoy, including more leisure. In fact, in more productive economies, workers have been progressively working less. In contrast, the less productive poorer economies have seen workers working longer to earn more and compensate for lower productivity.
The relationship between working hours and productivity has greater significance for India in view of the PAIGAM, UPenn and IFAT report, which shows that 78 percent of respondents were between 21 and 40 years. Thus, excessively long work days can have an inimical impact on the productivity of younger workers involved in this occupation, which in turn implies the possibilities of reaping a demographic dividend diminish quite drastically.
Further, the large share of the youth engaged as app-based drivers could also be an indication that in this profession, those in the older age groups cannot generally take on the excessive workload. In other words, the working age for these drivers effectively ends at 40 years, instead of the generally considered 64 years. With about 70 percent of the drivers reporting that their earnings are not adequate to meet their expenses, their working conditions can be best described as precarious.
This represents one of the worst examples of labour market flexibility, the form of worker engagement that has generally found favour with Indian businesses. Given the unacceptable condition of the drivers, the government needs to urgently reverse further moves towards irresponsibly flexible labour markets and strongly enforce the ILO labour standards. Only then can the country’s young population be productively employed, ensuring that demographic dividend becomes a reality.
(Views are personal)
(bisjit@gmail.com)
Biswajit Dhar | Former professor, JNU; Vice President, Council for Social Development