Digital Platforms and their Impacts on Gig Workers and Restaurants: Insights from Delhi National Capital Region

Abstract

Today,there are numerous mobile applications known as digital platforms, which involve three stakeholders: gig workers, restaurant partners, and consumers in the case of food delivery platforms. Our study primarily focuses on gig workers and restaurant partners in the Delhi NCR region since these platforms have simplified the lives of consumers but may not have the same effect on gig workers and restaurants. Digital Sector contribute about 25 % to India’s economy and provide employment to 62.4 M workers. We aim to examine the positive and negative impacts of digital platforms in the food industry on gig workers and restaurant partners. Our study is based Secondary data from NASSCOM , IRAI, Statista and Primary data from the survey of around 50 delivery workers and 30 restaurant partners to check the end to end journey for delivery boys: the moment he registers himself on the application till the time he leaves the job; majorly focusing on their working conditions and the factors affecting their income and also to see the business impact of the restaurant partners after the emergence of digital platforms. We found that younger people with lower levels of education prefer this type of employment as their primary income source. However, they are always searching for a more secure job due to the exploitative nature of this work. Gig workers often have to travel long distances and receive piece-rated wages, which makes financial planning difficult. Their income is dependent on customer demand, working hours, distance traveled, and the number of orders delivered, unlike other forms of digital work, which depend on socio-economic profiles. On the other hand, small restaurants pay higher commissions to the platform and have lower online sales, making digital workers more marginalized than restaurants. Additionally, smaller restaurants are more exploited compared to the larger branded restaurants. Therefore, it is crucial for policymakers and platform operators to work together to improve the working conditions of gig workers and restaurant partners while ensuring the sustainability of the digital platform economy.