One thing that does not change in India is the bleeding hearts whose soft souls continue to cry for those less fortunate. Thirty years ago, they were stressing over the cruelty towards “digital coolies” who wrote code, imagined in their fertile minds as physically chained to their desks and whipped every now and then. And now the same emotion is being spent for the poor gig workers who toil hard hours, drive dangerously at great personal risk, are at the beck and call of those well-off, and are deprived of what they think are good jobs. Good jobs are, of course, another term for government jobs that require little work but come with plenty of perks. But the reality of gig workers can be very different, as it was for the coders of India. Not only were careers and livelihoods built, but the country’s growth was too.

The Economic Survey 2025-26 estimates gig workers (delivery, ride-sharing, and freelancing) to be 1.2 crore in number, making up 2% of India’s non-agri workforce. This will be 6.7% of India’s workforce by 2029-30, contributing ₹2.35 lakh crore to the GDP. These are not small numbers and, instead of trying to kill this industry, what would be more useful are steps to transition them into the formal economy; many such steps are already being taken.

Also Read | India’s gig workers need more effective protection

One such example is the recent news report on........

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