India registers 7,17,686 gig workers; 58% are from Bengal, UP and Bihar

JCode on Social Security, 2020, for the first time, defines gig workers and envisages social security benefits through formulation of schemes.

India has registered at least 7,17,686 gig workers, a first of its kind formal count by the government, and almost 58% of them have come from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar alone.

The official data was captured via the informal sector data base created by the union labour ministry. According to data presented in the parliament on 3 February, while 219,443 gig workers have registered in West Bengal, it is followed by 128,241 in Uttar Pradesh and 67,329 in Bihar.

Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh too have reported high registration of gig workers.

In fairly industrialised states like Maharashtra and Gujarat this number stands at 18,497 and 12,502, respectively. In Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the number of gig workers, who have registered with the central government data base, stands at 9,826 and 9,405, respectively, as per latest data till January 28.

The Code on Social Security, which is yet to be implemented recognises gig workers as a new occupational category and where there is no traditional employee and employer relationship. It defines the “gig worker as a person who performs work or participates in work arrangement and earns from such activities, outside of the traditional employer-employee relationship.”

There is no definition of gig workers in the existing central labour laws. However, the Code on Social Security, 2020, for the first time, defines gig workers and envisages social security benefits through formulation of schemes. It is provided in the Code on Social Security, 2020 to set up a Social Security Fund and one of the sources of fund, is contribution between 1% to 2% of annual turnover of an aggregator subject to the limit of 5% of the amount paid or payable by an aggregator to such workers.

“However, no scheme has been finalized as the provisions under the Code relating to gig and platform worker have not come into force” the labour ministry informed.

To be sure, none of the four labour codes – on wages, social security, industrial code, and occupational safety – has come into effect despite being passed by Parliament more than a year back. This is due to several reasons such as slow pace of rule framing, reservation on some of the provisions by both employers and employees, and the upcoming Assembly elections in key states.