Mains Practice Questions

Approach

• Introduce by briefly explaining about the Gig Economy.
• Discuss how it helps in the process of women empowerment in India.
• Also evaluate some of the constraints of the Gig Economy.
• Conclude suitably.

Introduction

A gig economy is a free market system in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements.

According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, India’s gig workforce comprises 15 million workers employed across industries such as software, shared services and professional services.

An estimated 56% of new employment in India is being generated by the gig economy companies across both the blue-collar and white-collar workforce.

Body

Role in women empowerment -

• Gig economy will itself expand and boost women’s employment because it is based on flexible, temporary, or freelance jobs, often involving connecting with clients or customers through an online platform
  
  • This underscores that alternative work arrangements in the gig economy have the potential to absorb more women and increase their participation in the workforce.
• With the economic and financial downturn causing many people around the world to lose secure employment, the gig economy has given people, especially women, an enormous opportunity to look for part-time work and independent work.
  
  • This will encourage those women who could not opt for full-time work to join the workforce. This scenario will boost women’s employment globally.
• With the spread of Covid-19, the world of work has changed drastically. To prevent the spread of the virus, every country had imposed lockdowns, and this brought countries to a complete standstill. It slowed down economic activities all around the globe and eventually all the economies can face some kind of economic shocks.
  
  • Now everyone including women are required to contribute equally. Gig economy for the starter can be the best option to employ the masses.
• Like Uber, there are various other on-demand platforms that have come into existence to facilitate consumer access to a range of care and domestic work services, such as cooking, cleaning, and child and elderly care. These include MyDidi in India, Domestly and SweepSouth in South Africa, and Aliada in Mexico.
  
  • The gig economy has huge potential to encourage women employment as it facilitates flexible and remote work

Constraints

• Unregulated Nature: The gig economy thrives largely unregulated, therefore workers have little job security and few benefits.
• Need for Skills: A worker needs to be skilled enough. Unless a person is extremely talented, his bargaining power will necessarily be limited.
  
  • While companies routinely invest in training employees, a gig-economy woman worker will have to upgrade his skills on his own at his own cost.
• Demand-Supply Mismatch: There are already many more potential online independent workers than jobs, and this demand-supply mismatch will only get worse over time, depressing wages especially for women.

Conclusion

• To safeguard the interest of both employers and employees, some labour laws and regulations are required in the changing world of work.
• Also, documenting best practises across the globe on how different industries are using new technologies and at the same time creating job opportunities for women would help create supportive policies.