India’s online food delivery market is expected to enter its “next growth phase,” and scale from INR 900 crores in 2024 to nearly INR 2700 crores by 2030 owing to digital adoption and urbanisation of consumption patterns. However, this “growth” is smoke and mirrors when you peel back the day-to-day routines of an app-based worker expected to fulfil these orders.
Delivery workers with multiple quick-commerce platforms assert that urban regions can no longer do without doorstep delivery. In such a context, why does gig work remain undignified? Gig workers are expected to take on delivery orders with no knowledge of how much they’ll earn from it—their earnings are completely arbitrary and devoid of standardisation. Add to this the lack of access to drinking water, or clean bathrooms, broken complaint helplines and a system that is designed to penalise you for making mistakes on the job, the gig worker industry is at the brink of a much-needed wave of unionisation.
Join us for this month’s Beyond the Plate session as we dive deeper into the labour that moves across cities to deliver the food on our plates. Amidst conversations of gig workers striking and 10-minute delivery conditions being lifted, what are the prevailing conditions that make it difficult for gig workers to do their job with financial security and dignity?
We’ll be joined by Saif, a gig worker who has been working across quick commerce apps for the past 2.5 years and Omir Kumar, a policy analyst whose work centers around AI, policy, and India’s digital economy. We’ll also be joined by Rikta Krishnaswamy, Vice President, RAWU, who will be sharing the significant role that unions play in advocating for gig workers rights. Through this conversation we aim to highlight ground realities of India’s gig work economy and discuss the demands of the many workers employed under this system. The conversation will be moderated by The Locavore’s Assistant Projects Editor, Shreya Bansal, who has spent the past month working on a story to bring some of these issues to the fore.
Quick commerce apps are marketed and built around the convenience of its customers, and have become a necessary part of urban lives. However, we need to interrogate why this infrastructure denies basic rights to the very gig workers on whom it relies to keep its doors open. This conversation is not just for policy makers or academics, it’s for anyone who’s ever felt compelled to question the nature and ethics of e-commerce apps.
Saif, Gig Worker
Saif has been working as a gig worker for the past 2.5 years across different quick commerce platforms in Delhi. He is also a union leader and member of the Rajdhani App Workers Union, an organization working for rights of gig workers in the Delhi CR region.
Rikta Krishnaswamy, Vice President, Rajdhani App Workers Union
Rikta Krishnaswamy is a designer and organiser based in Delhi. She is the Vice President of the Democratic Youth Federation of India and the Rajdhani App Workers Union (affl. to CITU), and organises at the intersection of education, employment, and labour rights, with a particular focus on gig and platform workers in the city.
Omir Kumar, Researcher and Policy Analyst
Omir Kumar is a public-interest technology researcher working at the intersection of AI, policy, and India’s digital economy. He is currently a Policy Analyst at the Centre for Responsible AI, IIT Madras, where his work focuses on AI governance, AI safety, and the future of work. Previously, he worked at PRS Legislative Research, supporting Members of Parliament and state legislators on issues ranging from data protection, platform regulation, to public finance. He has also been part of Zomato’s policy team, gaining an inside view of how digital platforms operate. Omir brings a people-centric perspective to understanding how technology shapes society and how policy can respond meaningfully.
Moderator: Shreya Bansal, Assistant Projects Editor, The Locavore
Shreya is a writer and journalist and her work revolves around climate justice and human rights. As a reporter and researcher her work has also featured across various news outlets and publications in India. At The Locavore, she wants to tell stories sensitively, ethically and accurately.
Beyond the Plate is an initiative by The Locavore where we engage in meaningful conversations, live events, and dining experiences that look at food beyond the sum of its parts. It is our attempt to narrow the divide between what’s on our plate, where it comes from, how it’s produced, and the deeper stories around it.