14-hour workday in oppressive conditions: Expert shares dark truths of gig work

In the frenzied digital age we inhabit today, it is gradually dawning on us that chasing after instant gratification and effortless living comes at a cost. Behind the affordable indulgences which are available to us now with just a click of a button lies human labour, the hundreds of 'ant workers' sustaining this economy - the gig workers and internet retailers - who live pressured lives and remain entirely at the mercy of opaque rules imposed by global tech platforms.

Increasingly, as gig workers, who went on strike on New Year's eve, are bargaining for better, safer working conditions, platforms argue that over-regulation will kill an industry that is growing at a rapid pace.

Vandana Vasudevan, a development sector professional and author of OTP Please! a book on online buyers, sellers and gig workers across South Asia, talks to The Federal, to shed light on this complex and evolving landscape.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews and a large-scale survey, this timely book exhaustively examines how app-based platforms, algorithms and on-demand services are reshaping work, the way we eat, move and everyday life in the region.

What is the central argument of your book and what does it focus on?

The book looks at online buyers, sellers and gig workers in India and neighbouring countries, and how the digital economy and e-commerce have grown, especially since the pandemic. It is based on hundreds of interviews with workers, consumers who use apps for transport, shopping and food delivery, and sellers and small eateries who supply these goods and services.

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It offers a 360-degree view of the gig economy across sectors such as transport platforms like Uber and Ola, package delivery through Amazon, food delivery via Zomato and Swiggy, quick commerce platforms like Blinkit and Zepto, and home services such as Urban Company.

It brings together the perspectives of people who buy, people who deliver and people who sell, all held together by tech platforms. It examines how extensive use of apps is changing the way we live, eat, work and travel, and how it is reshaping society itself.

What challenges did you face while researching such a fast-evolving sector?

True, this is a constantly evolving space. By the time I thought I had finished, having travelled to about 27 cities, and gathered information from Pakistan and Bangladesh through interviews, something new would develop.

I had also authored a major report based on a survey of 5,500 gig workers in India in 2024, the largest such survey till date. Even after submitting my manuscript, I kept having to add new developments. I had to keep asking my editor to wait because something or the other kept changing.

Political situations in neighbouring countries were also shifting. When I started, Bangladesh was under Sheikh Hasina’s government and it was business as usual. Later, the upheaval and increasing conservatism made me wonder what would happen to women gig workers there, including those were riding motorbikes for all-women delivery platforms. So, it wasn’t just the gig economy changing; entire societies were in flux.

How did you manage to access gig platform's dark stores and warehouses?

Some of this happened because I partnered with a workers’ rights NGO in Delhi called Janpahal, to design and author their report on gig workers. Through them, I met a few women working in warehouses who were extremely agitated about the oppressive conditions.

A couple of them secretly sent me videos and described what happened daily, almost like a sting operation. That gave me a real view of warehouse life. I also found a dark store manager from Mumbai on Twitter who had just quit because he was unhappy. His story, the pressures he faced and his description of how the dark store operated are in the book.

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Unless someone actually gets employed inside and reports back, there is no way of knowing what really goes on.

What is your view on banning 10-minute deliveries? Is it implementable?

In the early days, platforms may try to bypass such rules. But the government should evolve a system that reports actual delivery times and makes that information public or at least available to regulators.

One of the biggest problems with tech platforms is that they have enormous amounts of data but are very unwilling to share it. Investors also resist regulation, arguing that platforms should be allowed to grow. So, we are in a situation in which worker rights and ease of doing business are currently clashing.

The government needs a mechanism to implement such rules. At the same time, platforms should also practice some self-regulation as awareness among workers has grown. In my view, it is becoming harder to violate these norms openly on a large scale. The consumers should also be mindful about the plight of gig workers.

Why are gig workers angry? What stories did they tell you?

The biggest issue is falling incomes. The workers don't earn enough. When platforms started, there were fewer workers and earnings were higher. As more workers have joined the system, individual earnings have dropped. Fuel price hikes are also not compensated.

Platform commissions have increased over time, so take-home pay keeps falling. Moreover, there is also no transparency about why certain amounts are deducted from their payments by platforms, and there is nobody to explain it. If they want to raise a complaint, they have to deal with bots and the way the system operates makes them frustrated.

Over time, frustrations have built up. It is a lonely job with no office, no peer group and no career growth. Workers log in and log out without any job security.

Also read: Zomato CEO Goyal defends gig model amid protests, safety concerns

Some were happy initially because it offered easy entry into a livelihood. But those who have worked for years, putting in 12 to 14 hours a day with falling incomes and no future prospects, are deeply unhappy.

In India, gig work is often not a side hustle. What does that mean for workers?

About 60 per cent treat it as a permanent job. They work 12 to 14 hours a day and are primary earners for their families. Only around 30 per cent do it part-time, which is what the model was originally meant to be, like it is in the US.

This mismatch between the intended design of gig work and how it is actually used in our country has created a lot of angst.

Tech companies say welfare measures will make their business models unsustainable. What is your response?

These are innovative industries with no precedent. We should not over-regulate and throttle them.

But what workers and activists are asking for—basic transparency, a human interface, no 10-minute deliveries—will not kill the business. Removing ultra-fast delivery targets or explaining payment deductions to gig workers will not destroy quick commerce.

Customers also have a role. We need to be conscious of what our convenience means for workers running around in the heat and rain.

These are things platforms should already be doing as responsible, ethical businesses.

What best practices have you seen during your research?

Daraz, an Amazon-like platform, which operates in neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, pays for fuel and provides a minimum salary so workers have a fixed income. Workers there are genuinely satisfied.

In Southeast Asia, platforms like Grab or Gojek have created rest spaces for workers. Zomato has tried something similar in Delhi.

For companies like Urban Company that hire many women, there should be facilities so women are not forced to sit on pavements or in parks between jobs. These pain points can be easily addressed if platforms think seriously about workers’ daily realities.

How has the gig economy opened new opportunities for women?

It has opened visible opportunities such as beauticians and masseurs working through Urban Company. But behind the scenes, there are platforms who use women workers to generate voice data for AI.

Some apps collect voice samples in regional languages. Rural women read short texts into the app and get paid. This data is used by companies like Amazon and Microsoft to train AI systems in Indian languages. Women can do this work from home, I met one such woman in Bengal, and many are happy with it.

There are also platforms like Lily Rides in Bangladesh that train women to ride motorbikes and become delivery workers. Other apps send women to take measurements for tailoring, acting as intermediaries for conservative households.

These are innovative models that have opened new doors for women across South Asia.

What is a key negative impact of the gig economy that you highlight in your book?

The book documents both the positives and negatives of the gig economy—how it is changing work, opening opportunities, creating stress and loneliness, and reshaping society. It asks how we can build a more humane, transparent and ethical version of this digital economy without killing innovation.

The content above has been transcribed using a fine-tuned AI model. To ensure accuracy, quality, and editorial integrity, we employ a Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) process. While AI assists in creating the initial draft, our experienced editorial team carefully reviews, edits, and refines the content before publication. At The Federal, we combine the efficiency of AI with the expertise of human editors to deliver reliable and insightful journalism.