India has granted legal status to millions of gig and platform workers under its newly implemented labor laws, marking a milestone for the country’s delivery, subscription and e-commerce workforce — but with benefits still unclear and platforms beginning to assess their obligations, access to social security remains elusive.
The recognition comes from the Social Security Code – one of the four labor laws of the Indian government entered into force on Friday — more than five years after the first parliament passed in 2020. It is the only part of the new framework that addresses gig and platform workers, as the other three codes — covering wages, labor relations and workplace safety — do not extend minimum wages, employment protections or working condition guarantees to this rapidly growing workforce.
India has one of the largest and fastest-growing gig economies in the world, with industry estimates suggesting that more than 12 million people deliver food, drive cabs, sort e-commerce packages and provide other on-demand services for digital platforms. The sector has become a critical source of employment, especially for young and migrant workers excluded from formal labor markets, and is set to expand further as companies scale up logistics, retail and hyperlocal delivery.
Companies from Amazon-owned Flipkart and Walmart to Indian express delivery apps like Swiggy, Eternal’s Blinkit and Zepto, as well as companies like Uber, Ola and Rapido, rely on gig workers to run their businesses in the South Asian country – the world’s second-largest internet and smartphone market after China. But despite powering some of India’s most valuable tech businesses, most gig workers operate outside traditional labor protections and lack access to basic social security.
New labor laws aim to change that, defining gig and platform workers in the statute and requiring aggregators, such as food delivery and ride-hailing platforms, to contribute 1–2% of their annual revenue (capped at 5% of payments made to these workers) to a government-run social security fund. But the details remain unclear: exactly what benefits will actually be offered, how workers will access and track contributions across multiple platforms, and when payments will begin remain unclear, raising concerns that meaningful protections could take years to materialize.
THE Social Security Code it creates a legal framework for gig workers to be covered by programs such as state employee insurance, welfare fund and state insurance. However, the extent of these benefits — including eligibility, contribution levels and delivery mechanisms — remains unclear and will depend on future rules and system notifications.
A key part of the framework is the creation of Social Security Boards at both the central and state levels, tasked with designing and overseeing welfare schemes for gig and platform workers. The central board must include five representatives of gig and platform workers and five representatives of aggregators, all nominated by the government, along with senior officials, experts and representatives of the state, according to the Code. However, it is unclear how decisions will be made, how much influence employee representatives will actually have, or who will ultimately control funding and benefit decisions.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco
|
13-15 October 2026
“We have to wait and see what exactly the government has in mind when it comes to implementing the four Codes and what it hopes to do for gig workers,” said Balaji Parthasarathy, a professor at IIIT Bangalore and principal investigator of the Fairwork India project. “And then we also have to see what the states are translating on the ground.”
Parthasarathy noted that because labor policy in India is shared between the federal and state governments — referred to in “Concurrent List” of the Indian Constitution — state governments are responsible for designing, promulgating and administering many of the schemes required to make the Social Security Code operational for gig workers.
This raises the possibility of unequal access, as some states move quickly to establish social security boards and develop mechanisms, while others delay or downgrade the effort due to political or fiscal constraints. Recent examples — like Rajasthan’s the legislation stalled after it was passed in 2023and the Karnataka Labor Act, which was implemented soon after liquidation of the state assembly — underline how the protection of workers may ultimately depend on where they live rather than the law itself.
Platform companies have publicly welcomed the reform, but are still largely assessing what it will require of them. An Amazon India representative told TechCrunch that the company supports the Indian government’s intent behind the labor reform and is evaluating the changes it will need to introduce. A Zepto spokesman said the company welcomed the new labor codes as “a big step towards clearer, simpler rules that protect workers while supporting the ease of doing business”, adding that the changes would help strengthen social security for delivery partners without undermining the flexibility on which fast-casual businesses rely.
Food delivery company Eternal, formerly known as Zomato, said in a stock exchange filing that the Social Security Code is a step toward more uniform rules and that it does not expect the financial impact to threaten its long-term business.
However, Aprajita Rana, partner at corporate law firm AZB & Partners, said the change “will of course have an economic impact” on India’s e-commerce sector as employee contributions are now being formalized. It will also create new compliance obligations, requiring companies to ensure all workers in their networks are registered with the government-run fund, identify whether individuals are connected to multiple aggregators and how to avoid double benefits, and set up internal complaints mechanisms.
“While the law has the right intent, employee structures in India are quite new and practical compliance challenges will arise as the law comes into effect,” Rana told TechCrunch.
One of the biggest hurdles for gig workers seeking benefits under the newly implemented law will be registering with the Indian government E-Shram Portalwhich started in 2021 as a national database of unorganized workers. The gate had registered more than 300,000 platform workers since late August, even though the government estimates India’s gig workforce at about 10 million. Unions, including the Indian Federation of Application-Based Transport Workers (IFAT), which has more than 70,000 members, are working to help workers register to access benefits.
Ambika Tandon, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge and affiliate of the national trade union Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), said registering on the portal could mean lost wages for gig workers as they would have to take leave to fill in the required details.
“These workers are working 16-hour days,” he told TechCrunch. “They don’t have time to go and register on the government portal.”
CITU is also among the ten major Indian trade unions requesting withdrawal of the new labor laws, ahead of nationwide protests planned for Wednesday.
The benefits of signing up for the E-Shram portal aren’t compelling to many workers, Tandon noted, because the law doesn’t address more immediate concerns like earnings fluctuations, account suspensions and sudden account terminations — issues that workers say far more about right now than access to insurance or provident fund benefits.
Unions often organize strikes to push platforms to address these concerns directly. However, such actions can disrupt everyone involved, including consumers, and put workers at further risk as they are not paid during the strike and may even be terminated for participating.
“While the social security rules are now in place, we are demanding a minimum wage and an employer-employee relationship for gig and platform workers, which is yet to be decided by the government,” said Shaik Salauddin, founder president of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU), which has more than 10,000 members and the national general secretary of Telan and ATgana. “We urge the government to take data from the aggregators and secure their monetary contributions to the fund to start providing benefits to workers.”
There is a broader debate about whether gig workers should be treated as employees — a question the new labor law does not address. The Social Security Code defines gig and platform workers as a separate category, rather than extending them the rights and protections that come with employee status. Instead, courts and regulators in markets such as the UK, Spain and New Zealand have moved to recognize platform workers as employees or “employees”, entitled to minimum wages, paid leave and other benefits. In some US jurisdictions, regulators and courts have pushed for platform workers to treated as employees or similarly protected workers, although many ride and delivery drivers remain classified as independent contractors.
“With this law, the Indian government has settled that debate by saying that these gig workers do not fall under employment or other protections,” Tandon said.
India’s labor ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
