[Answered] Enumerate NITI Aayog’s recommendations for the betterment of gig and platform workers.

A gig worker is a person who engages in income-earning activities outside of a traditional employer-employee relationship, as well as in the informal sector. When gig workers use platforms i.e., websites or apps like Ola, Uber, Dunzo, Zomato, Swiggy or Urban Company- to connect with customers, they are called platform workers. For India, four industry sectors can be identified as the ones with the highest potential to produce “gigable” jobs in the future — Construction, Manufacturing, Retail, and Transportation and Logistics.

NITI Aayog’s recommendations:

• Undertake a separate enumeration exercise to estimate the size of the gig economy, and identify the characteristic features of gig workers.
• Extend social security measures to gig workers and their families, including sick leave, insurance, and pension.
• Accelerate access to finance through products specifically designed for platform workers, linking self-employed individual engaged in the business of selling regional and rural cuisine etc., with platforms to enable them to sell their produce to wider markets in towns and cities.
• Bridging skill gaps by carrying out periodic assessments and partnering with platform businesses for onboarding skilled women and persons with disabilities.
• Referring specifically to mobility players and delivery giants, NITI Aayog said that the startups should offer accident insurance to their gig workers in collaboration with the private sector or the government.
• The report puts forth suggestions for platform-led transformational and outcome-based skilling.
• Referring to Indonesia’s example, the think tank also called on the companies to offer occupational disease and work accident insurance for employees.

Embracing the gig economy means we can outsource tasks and jobs, as we need them. It gives us greater freedom, flexibility and brings in new skills and ideas. NITI Aayog’s recommendations are the much-needed reforms for the betterment of gig and platform workers.