Platform worker

Topic: Employment, Unemployment and Informalisation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

A platform worker is a gig worker who finds customers or clients through an online platform (an app or website), for example a food-delivery rider or a cab driver on a ride-hailing app. A gig worker is someone who works and earns outside the traditional employer-employee relationship. Both terms were defined in Indian law for the first time by the Code on Social Security, 2020, which came into force on 21 November 2025 [1].

Why it matters: platform workers are a fast-growing part of India's workforce. They have no fixed employer, so no one is clearly responsible for their wages, safety or old-age income. The Code now gives them social security, funded by the apps they work through:

Aggregator contribution = the lower of (1-2% × annual turnover) and (5% × amount paid or payable to gig and platform workers) [1]

Explanation

How platform work is organised

There are three players:

• Platform worker: the rider, driver or service provider who does the task.
• Aggregator: a digital intermediary or marketplace (an online middleman) that connects buyers of a service with the people who provide it. Examples: Zomato, Swiggy, Uber, Ola, Urban Company [1].
• Customer: the person who orders the service on the app.

The worker is paid per task (per delivery or per ride), not a fixed monthly salary.

Algorithmic management means the app's software, not a human manager, controls the work:

• It sets pay, targets and ratings.
• It can deactivate (block) a worker without human review or appeal.
• Workers often cannot see how their pay is worked out.

Where platform workers fit among informal workers

• Unorganised sector: small, scattered units, mostly outside government control. Jobs there are low-paid and irregular, with no paid leave or security.
• Gig workers are one part of informal work. Platform workers are one part of gig work.
• All platform workers are gig workers.

• Not all gig workers are platform workers. A freelance designer paid per task, who finds clients offline, is a gig worker but not a platform worker.

• The test: does the work come through an online platform?

How big the gig workforce is and how it is changing

From the NITI Aayog report "India's Booming Gig and Platform Economy" (June 2022) [2][3]:

• 2020-21: 77 lakh gig workers. That was 2.6% of the non-agricultural workforce, or 1.5% of the total workforce [2][3].
• 2029-30 (projected): 2.35 crore workers. That would be 6.7% of the non-agricultural workforce, or 4.1% of total livelihoods [2][3].
• Skill mix (2020-21): medium-skilled about 47%, low-skilled about 31%, high-skilled about 22% [3].
• The medium-skilled share is falling. The low- and high-skilled shares are rising.
• This is called job polarisation: jobs grow at the two ends while the middle shrinks.

Why the workforce grows:

• Organised jobs are growing slowly, so new workers look for other income.
• Firms avoid labour laws by hiring on contract or per task, which saves them cost.
• Apps make it easy to start work quickly, with flexible hours.

Who pays for their social security: worked example

• Rule: an aggregator pays 1-2% of its annual turnover into a Social Security Fund. The payment is capped at 5% of the amount it pays or owes to gig and platform workers [1].
• Example:
• An app's annual turnover is ₹1,000 crore. The government notifies a rate of 2%, so 2% × 1,000 = ₹20 crore.
• The app pays its riders ₹300 crore in the year. The cap is 5% × 300 = ₹15 crore.

• The app pays ₹15 crore, the lower of the two figures.

• Why the cap exists: an app with a large turnover but few gig workers should not be charged an unfair amount.

In India

• Law: the Code on Social Security, 2020 defines gig worker, platform worker and aggregator. It came into force on 21 November 2025 [1].

• It subsumes (absorbs) the Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008.

• Oversight: a National Social Security Board oversees schemes for gig and platform workers.

• What the schemes cover: life and disability cover, accident insurance, health and maternity benefits, and old-age protection [1].
• e-Shram (2021): a national database of unorganised workers. Each registered worker gets an e-Shram UAN (Universal Account Number), one ID that stays with them wherever they go.
• 31.42 crore registrations as of 22 December 2025 [4]. Women make up 53.68% of registrations [5].
• Aggregator module launched on 12 December 2024. Apps use it to register themselves and the platform workers who work through them [1].

• 12 major aggregators have been onboarded: Zomato, Blinkit, Uncle Delivery, Urban Company, Uber, Amazon, Ola, Swiggy, Ecom Express, Rapido, Zepto and Porter [1][6].

• Budget 2025-26 made three promises for online platform workers [6]: 1. registration on e-Shram; 2. identity cards; 3. health cover under Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, the government's hospital-insurance scheme).

• The Standing Finance Committee approved the PM-JAY extension on 18 March 2025 [6].

• Other schemes they can use:

• PM-SYM (2019): a contributory pension of ₹3,000 a month from age 60.
• Atal Pension Yojana (2015).

• Wider ESIC cover. ESIC (Employees' State Insurance Corporation) gives health and cash benefits to insured workers.

• State laws for platform workers: Rajasthan (2023) and Karnataka (2025), among others.

Don't confuse with

• Gig worker: the wider group. Anyone earning outside a traditional employer-employee relationship. A platform worker is a gig worker whose work comes through an online platform.
• Aggregator: the app or company (Uber, Swiggy) that connects customers and workers and pays into the Social Security Fund. The platform worker is the person doing the task.
• Employee: has an employer who must pay minimum wage, leave and PF (provident fund). India's Code gives platform workers social security but not full employee rights. It is a third category.
• Casual worker: hired day by day with no contract, mainly in construction, trade and transport. The work does not come through an app.

Prelims Hooks

• Gig worker, platform worker and aggregator were first defined in law by the Code on Social Security, 2020, in force from 21 November 2025 [1].
• Trap: every platform worker is a gig worker, but not every gig worker is a platform worker.
• Aggregator contribution: 1-2% of annual turnover, capped at 5% of the amount paid or payable to gig and platform workers [1].
• NITI Aayog (June 2022): 77 lakh gig workers in 2020-21, projected to reach 2.35 crore by 2029-30. That is 1.5% → 4.1% of the total workforce [2][3].
• e-Shram aggregator module launched on 12 December 2024. Budget 2025-26 promised PM-JAY health cover to platform workers registered on e-Shram [1][6].
• ILO Convention No. 193 (2026), adopted at the 114th International Labour Conference (ended 12 June 2026), is the first international labour standard for the platform economy [7].

Mains Points

• Social security without full employee status:
• India's Code funds platform workers' social security through aggregator contributions. It does not give them employee rights such as minimum wage or protection from unfair dismissal.
• Compare this with the UK Supreme Court's Uber ruling (2021), which held drivers to be "workers" with minimum wage and paid holiday. Compare it also with ILO C193 (2026), which gives rights such as freedom of association, collective bargaining and a safe workplace, whatever the worker's employment status [8].

• Trade-off (GS-III): flexibility for platforms and jobs against income security for workers.

• Algorithmic accountability is a new governance issue (GS-II):

• Apps can deactivate workers with no appeal, and they do not explain how pay is calculated.

• Needed: grievance redressal, human review of deactivations, and transparent pay rules, plus minimum-earnings and heat-stress standards for riders who work outdoors for long hours.

• From registration to real benefit:

• 31.42 crore e-Shram registrations (December 2025) [4] give a worker nothing unless the ID is linked to schemes: PM-JAY, PM-SYM, APY and ESIC.
• Platform workers often change apps, cities and states. So portability matters. The e-Shram UAN and One Nation One Ration Card are examples: benefits must move with the worker, or the worker loses them.

Related concepts

• Landless agricultural labourers
• Small and marginal farmers
• Gig worker
• Universal social security
• Portability of benefits

Read more

• Protecting unorganised, gig and platform workers