41st anniversary of The Times of India, Bengaluru: Where delivery never stops

Time of India

3 days ago

On any given morning in Bengaluru, the city begins to hum well before office towers light up. Long before the first cappuccino is poured in a Koramangala café or a family logs into its online grocery app, hundreds of thousands of gig workers are already in motion, delivering breakfasts, ferrying commuters, restocking shelves in micro-warehouses, or setting up kits for doorstep salon bookings.
They are the quiet, relentless machinery behind the city's digital convenience.
Over the past decade, Bengaluru has come to define not just India's tech ambition but also the shape of its informal, app-driven labour force. If Mumbai is the city of finance and Delhi of politics, Bengaluru today is the capital of platform work, a city where the future of jobs is being prototyped real time.
Estimates vary, but industry insiders say there are upwards of 2 lakh active gig workers operating in and around Bengaluru.
These are individuals tied to no single employer, governed instead by the push and pull of algorithms, location density, and dynamic demand. From 10-minute grocery deliveries to 30-minute repair jobs, their work is fragmented, flexible, and often physically exhausting. What keeps them going is the promise of daily income and the hope that, someday, they'll find a more stable alternative.
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Ravi, 29, is one such worker.
He moved to the city from Hassan in 2021 and now juggles delivery gigs across three platforms. On a good day, he says, he makes close to Rs 2,500. On a bad one, it could fall under Rs 900. His schedule stretches from 6 in the morning till past 10 at night, with barely a break. 'It's like the app knows when I pause. I stop for too long, and the order flow disappears,' he says.
A blend of autonomy and pressure is central to the Bengaluru gig economy.
The city -- with its dense clusters of tech-savvy consumers, high urban sprawl, and startup-rich ecosystem -- has become the ideal test bed for gig platforms. Many of India's largest and fastest-scaling service startups either launched in or first expanded into Bengaluru. The city's early adopters have made it a natural destination for pilots, whether it's instant grocery models, hyperlocal parcel services or premium beauty-at-home offerings.
Beneath the scale and speed lies a more complex reality. For most workers, the benefits of flexibility are offset by deep unpredictability. There are no guaranteed earnings, no paid leave, no fallback options in case of illness, and very little visibility into how compensation is structured. Several workers report that platform payouts have gradually declined over time, while performance expectations, such as order acceptance rates or customer ratings, remain rigid.
Some like Kavitha, a 33-year-old home-services professional, say they entered platform work for the flexibility it offered. As a single parent, the idea of choosing when to work was appealing. 'But there's a catch,' she says. 'The platform gives priority to workers who are available more often, so if I work only a few hours, I get fewer bookings the next week. Flexibility comes at a cost.'
In a city like Bengaluru, where formal job creation hasn't kept pace with population growth, gig work is increasingly seen not just as stop-gap employment but as a primary income stream for thousands.
This shift has prompted a policy rethink at the state level.
Earlier this year, the Karnataka government issued an ordinance aimed at bringing gig and platformbased workers under a formal social security net. While the Karnataka Platform-based Gig Workers' (Social Security and Welfare) Ordinance, 2025, is yet to come into effect, it lays the groundwork for a contributory welfare fund that will cover accident insurance, health benefits, and other protections for gig workers.
The proposed system involves a 1-5% welfare cess on transactions facilitated by aggregators, structured in a way that platforms, consumers, and even gig workers themselves can contribute. 'The act has been framed in such a manner that all three stakeholders can contribute to the welfare fund, and even the gig worker can top up on his social security by paying extra towards the board,' said additional labour commissioner
Manjunath
, adding the rules were in the final stages of being framed.
However, he acknowledged that in practice, the cost may ultimately fall on end consumers.
Once operational, the ordinance is expected to apply to an estimated 30,000 platform workers initially. Under the draft rules, platforms will be assigned to different cess slabs depending on the nature of their business -- be it delivery, personal services, or mobility. The annual corpus from this framework is expected to touch Rs 150 crore.
Experts, however, advised caution. 'It's a longoverdue intervention,' said Balaji Parthasarathy, principal investigator at Fairwork India, 'but the devil is in the details. The legislation outlines the terrain, but execution will hinge on how wage protection, dispute resolution, and algorithmic accountability are addressed.'
Parthasarathy pointed out that the ordinance does not mandate a minimum wage, leaving workers exposed to fluctuations in per-task earnings.
'Transparency in deductions is a start, but without wage-floor guarantees or clear limits on unilateral payout cuts, platforms can still reduce per-task payments to offset the cess,' he said.
From a legal standpoint, the ordinance offers a degree of clarity. According to Vikram Shroff, partner at law firm AZB & Partners, the framework reduces the risk of worker misclassification by formally recognising platform labour relationships.
But he cautioned that some provisions, such as the conditions under which platforms can terminate or deactivate workers, may come under legal scrutiny, especially if they conflict with existing service contracts.
Shroff flagged a potential compliance headache for companies once the central government notifies the national Social Security Code. With both state and central frameworks addressing gig worker rights in parallel, platforms could face overlapping obligations.
Despite concerns, some platforms have responded favourably. One senior executive at a leading urban logistics company said the ordinance represents a 'welcome shift towards recognising gig work as essential labour,' and noted that many responsible platforms are already offering accident coverage and health insurance schemes.
'What we now need is clarity on how the cess will be calculated and whether compliance will be linked to worker volume or total payouts,' they said.
Beyond policy and payouts, the future of gig work in Bengaluru may lie in its ability to evolve. A growing number of workers are testing out hybrid models, taking on a mix of physical gigs and remote tasks like customer support, transcription, or AI data tagging. Others are exploring skill-based platforms that offer entry-level white-collar roles with more predictable hours, even if at lower pay.
Still, the majority remain on the road, working long hours to keep pace with fluctuating demand. As Karnataka moves to formalise protections, Bengaluru stands at a critical juncture. It can choose to lead India in shaping a digital labour framework that is both scalable and humane, or risk normalising a system where efficiency continues to outpace equity.