Beyond The 10-Minute Debate: What Do India's Gig Workers Need? |
“If we do it slowly, we will have to work 12–15 hours. If we want to finish in 10 hours, then we have to run.” Yogesh (name changed), a 33-year-old delivery partner in Delhi NCR, tells The Better India how this reality shapes his daily routine.
It is a calculation shaped not by choice, but by the way work is organised.
It begins with a tap on a screen.
A packet of milk, a loaf of bread, a late-night craving, ordered in seconds, delivered before the kettle boils. In India’s cities, instant delivery has quickly become part of everyday life. Planning groceries for the week or stepping out to pick up a forgotten item is no longer the norm for many urban consumers. We order, and someone else delivers.
On two wheels, through traffic, smog, rain, and darkness, gig workers have learnt to move at the speed of urban convenience.
For years, the promise of ‘10-minute delivery’ symbolised progress, efficiency wrapped in technology. However, behind that promise were people whose days stretched far beyond the app’s clock, whose earnings depended on speed, and whose safety often became negotiable.
In recent days, some quick-commerce platforms have stepped back from openly advertising ultra-fast deliveries following regulatory scrutiny around worker safety. The shift has been read as an acknowledgement that extreme speed carries risks.
Yet for riders on the road, the question remains: beyond advertising, has daily work actually changed?
India’s gig economy did not grow overnight. It expanded steadily through rising digital access, app-based services, and low entry barriers, before becoming embedded in everyday urban life. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this shift, turning delivery workers into essential links between homes and markets.
According to a NITI Aayog report, India had an estimated 7.7 million gig and platform workers in 2020–21 — a figure expected to grow to 23.5 million by 2029–30 as digitalisation deepens. By the end of the decade, gig workers could form nearly 7% of the non-agricultural workforce.
The same report acknowledges that while platform work has created new income opportunities, it also sits outside many traditional labour protections. It calls for universal social security, including health insurance, accident cover, and income protection for gig workers.
What this data makes clear is that delivery speed is only one visible part of a much larger system. Working hours, incentive structures, pay transparency, insurance coverage, and grievance mechanisms shape daily working conditions far more than countdown........