NITI Aayog report recommends expanding social distancing measures for gig workforce
India’s gig workforce is expected to expand from 77 lakh in 2020-21 to 2.35 crore by 2029-30, a NITI Aayog report said on Monday, and social security in partnership mode for such workers and their families It has been recommended to extend the measures, as envisaged in the Code. social Security.
The report, titled ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy’, further states that gig workers are expected to constitute 6.7 per cent of the non-farm workforce or 4.1 per cent of the total livelihood in India by 2029-30.
According to the report, it is estimated that in 2020-21, 77 lakh workers were engaged in the gig economy and they constituted 2.6 per cent of the non-farm workforce in India or 1.5 per cent of the total workforce.
Similarly, it was estimated that there were 68 lakh gig workers in 2019-20, using both principal and subsidiary status, which was 2.4 per cent of the non-farm workforce or 1.3 per cent of the total workforce in India.
Gig workers seem to differ from traditional workers in terms of some individual characteristics. Gig workers are comparatively young, working fewer hours a day on gig work, preferring a flexible work schedule, typically with a low to moderate level of education. Income through gig work is not their primary source of income and they often take on a more regular job.
The report noted that the employment elasticity for GDP growth for gig workers during the period 2011-12 to 2019-20 was above one, and was always above the overall employment elasticity.
In order to harness the potential of the gig-platform sector, the report developed products specifically designed for platform workers to connect self-employed individuals engaged in the business of selling regional and rural cuisine, street food, etc., with the platform. Recommended to accelerate access to finance through So that they can sell their produce in the wider markets of towns and cities.
Other recommendations include conducting a separate counting exercise to estimate the size of the gig-platform workforce and gathering information during official counts.
According to the report, in terms of industrial classification, about 26.6 lakh gig workers were involved in retail trade and sales, and around 1.3 million were in the transport sector. It added that around 6.2 lakh were in manufacturing and another 6.3 lakh in finance and insurance activities.
Currently, about 47 percent of gig work is in medium-skilled jobs, 22 percent in high-skilled jobs and about 31 percent in low-skilled jobs.
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