“Every political party has their own agenda,” said Arun V., a delivery partner in his thirties, after completing an order on a hot weekday afternoon. “This time, I hope that these parties include even the welfare of delivery partners in their agendas. A few years ago, we could say that ours was a new sector and people did not know what our needs were. But now, even after openly saying what we need multiple times, they still don’t pay attention to us,” he said, finding himself in a quandary about which party to vote for.
With the rise of e-commerce platforms, gig workers have now become an inseparable part of a functioning society. The sector is made up of lakhs of workers, of which, a majority say that the government has been unsuccessful so far in resolving their problems, including that of exploitation by their companies.
These workers are technically not recognised as employees by the most companies. They are referred to as delivery partners or immediate contractors which keeps them away from the benefits enjoyed by regular employees. Thus, the sector has been demanding for a long time now for the government to bring regulations which will correct this problem.
“Our employers treat us terribly. Sometimes even if we make the slightest mistake, they threaten to fire us or cut our pay. It is easy for them to do that just by sitting in one place while we go around the city toiling ourselves for every penny. I really hope the government comes up with stricter laws for our safety and well-being,” said Sharif, a college student who also works as a delivery partner with one of the country’s biggest start-ups.
Like many other delivery partners who juggle various commitments, Sharif also manages both his college and the gig work after losing his father to the pandemic.
“We want them to care about our safety and security, like any other sector. They must bring laws that make us feel like we are important to society and the work we do really matters,” Arun also added.
Gig workers also demanded that the new government should look into providing them with better health facilities. “We want the government to extend the ESI and PF facilities to gig workers. These workers have very poor accident and health cover schemes,” said Vinay Sarathy, president of the United Food Delivery Partners’ Union.
(This is the third part of a series on what people want - people from sectors whose voices are often unheard, and who are not on the top of priorities in votebank politics.)
