It’s been about a decade-and-a-half since the gig economy made its advent in Karnataka with ride-on-demand cab services, mainly in Bengaluru then. In the following years, several aggregator-based delivery services got added to the model. This has seen its workforce strength grow to about four lakh in Karnataka, and is expected to grow phenomenally in the years ahead. The growth is a part of the India-wide growth in the number of gig workers which, according to NITI Aayog estimates, has risen from 77 lakh in 2020 and projected to cross 2.35 crore by 2029–30.
Over these years, while hardly any thought was given to the welfare and security of gig workers, the Karnataka government finally had the Karnataka Platform-based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2025, passed in the Assembly and Council in the monsoon session that concluded on Friday. It’s now on its way to be an Act pending the Governor’s assent and it being notified. With that, Karnataka will be only the second state in India to have an Act dealing with welfare and security of gig workers after Rajasthan.
On becoming an Act, it aims at setting up a dispute-resolution mechanism; a gig workers’ welfare board that will set up a welfare fund; registration of workers, aggregators or platforms; bring about some level of income security; and aim for reasonable working conditions for them. These are bound to bring some degree of relief among gig workers, but it’s only a job half done.
A large part of a gig worker’s vulnerabilities are linked to the society which they serve while in pursuit of their own livelihoods. And these vulnerabilities exist because of various reasons – pressures from the work culture nurtured by the aggregator; pursuit of building up favourable impressions on the service providers that they seek to connect while aiming at increasing the customer base simultaneously for themselves and their service providers; and behaviour of customers, at the mercy of which the gig workers remain.
The aggregator-based gig economy thrives in a symbiotic atmosphere – a mutual back-scratching exercise between the aggregators and the service providers they link their customers with. It works like this: the service aggregator acts as the digital intermediary.
The aggregator links third-party service providers with their users/customers by bringing them on a single platform (through apps mainly) to enable the users/customers to access, choose and order services/products from the providers.
The aggregators earn their profits through commissions on each transaction, revenues raised from fees collected for vendor listing or featured placements, selling ad space for products of vendors or service providers, providing data analytics and insight to them, and the subscription fees charged for premium services.
In this kind of a symbiotic model, it’s a win-win-win for all – the vendors/service providers who earn on the sales through aggregators; for the aggregators who cash in on their revenues through the transactions and marketing strategies for their providers; and for the customers who get what they ordered from their favourite vendors.
It benefits consumers by offering a wide selection of services and convenient booking, while providing service providers with access to a larger customer base and increased leads. In the bargain, there are profits for the aggregator.
But the crucial segment left out of this win-win-win equation comprises the gig workers, who actually carry out the delivery of goods and services – the one you may prefer to call the “cutting edge”, the one on the ground handing over products /services to the customers come hail or high water, rain or shine, and through the everlasting threats to their lives posed by hazardous traffic on our roads and pollution in the air.
Worse, many aggregators stipulate time limits with conditions of non-payment or discounted payments if deliveries don’t take place in time – repercussions of which are borne by the worker making the delivery. To avoid such adverse scenarios, many delivery persons care two hoots for safety while trying to deliver in time. After all, it’s a question of livelihood! Many don’t make it, their lives cut short by these hazards!
Many of these aspects cannot be covered by law, as they have to be shaped and evolved through healthier and more positive work culture by keeping the gig workers – as humans – at the centre of the operations, and an empathetic approach by the aggregators and customers alike.
The 2021 book Love as a Business Strategy, jointly written by four authors – Frank E Danna, Mohammad Anwar, Jeffrey F Ma and Christopher J Pitre – argues that a people-first, human-centric approach driven by principles like inclusion, empathy, trust, vulnerability, forgiveness, and empowerment can lead to better business outcomes.
It increases loyalty, attracts stronger talent and enhances resilience. It creates a supportive culture wherein employees can grow, make mistakes, and be their authentic selves, ultimately fostering a more productive and profitable environment than traditional, profit-focused models.
Essentially, if aggregators put gig workers first, and in the centre of their operations based on empathy, it can facilitate better customer and client experiences, and ultimately achieve more sustainable success. Empathy from customers would be the icing on the cake.