Impact of Gig Economy on Food Delivery Workers in Union Territory of Puducherry, India

Abstract

In recent years, online food delivery has revolutionized the way that people buy and consume food, and there are now a huge number of businesses that provide on-demand takeaway services. However, the platforms that enable online food delivery have adopted business models where the couriers who deliver the food are employed in the so-called gig economy. The gig economy benefits employers, employees, and the entire ecosystem, which benefits the economy overall by giving various groups in this densely populated nation like India meaningful opportunities. India's workforce is evolving as a result of the growth of the gig economy. In India, there are currently between 8 and 18 million gig economy jobs, with an expected increase to over 90 million jobs in the non-farm sector over the next eight to ten years. The COVID pandemic has highlighted the importance of the service provided by those food delivery workers. In many countries, they have allowed restaurants to continue working during lockdowns. Although they provided valuable services, the status and remunerations of the food delivery workers have not changed.  This present study made an attempt to find out the precarious nature of employment of online food delivery workers in Union Territory of Puducherry. The study was undertaken using mixed methods, through which quantitative and qualitative dimensions of the issues related to livelihood and working conditions of the online food delivery workers in the Union territory of Puducherry were explored. The data was collected from 200 online food delivery workers from two major cities in union territory of Puducherry, namely Pondicherry and Karaikal. These two urban areas chosen on newspaper reports about the plight of online food delivery workers in these cities during the lockdown period. Online food delivery workers belong to online food delivery companies like Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo and Uber Eats are considered as sample respondents. The research follows a qualitative approach and primary data collected through structured questionnaire. The questionnaire for the survey data prepared using existing literature on food aggregator business and it has been finalized after two rounds of pilot surveys.