“If we do it slowly, we will have to work 12–15 hours. If we want to finish in 10 hours, then we have to run.” Yogesh (name changed), a 33-year-old delivery partner in Delhi NCR, tells The Better India how this reality shapes his daily routine.
It is a calculation shaped not by choice, but by the way work is organised.
It begins with a tap on a screen.
A packet of milk, a loaf of bread, a late-night craving, ordered in seconds, delivered before the kettle boils. In India’s cities, instant delivery has quickly become part of everyday life. Planning groceries for the week or stepping out to pick up a forgotten item is no longer the norm for many urban consumers. We order, and someone else delivers.
On two wheels, through traffic, smog, rain, and darkness, gig workers have learnt to move at the speed of urban convenience.
For years, the promise of ‘10-minute delivery’ symbolised progress, efficiency wrapped in technology. However, behind that promise were people whose days stretched far beyond the app’s clock, whose earnings depended on speed, and whose safety often became negotiable.
In recent days, some quick-commerce platforms have stepped back from openly advertising ultra-fast deliveries following regulatory scrutiny around worker safety. The shift has been read as an acknowledgement that extreme speed carries risks.
Yet for riders on the road, the question remains: beyond advertising, has daily work actually changed?
What the data already tells us about gig work in India
India’s gig economy did not grow overnight. It expanded steadily through rising digital access, app-based services, and low entry barriers, before becoming embedded in everyday urban life. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this shift, turning delivery workers into essential links between homes and markets.
According to a NITI Aayog report, India had an estimated 7.7 million gig and platform workers in 2020–21 — a figure expected to grow to 23.5 million by 2029–30 as digitalisation deepens. By the end of the decade, gig workers could form nearly 7% of the non-agricultural workforce.
The same report acknowledges that while platform work has created new income opportunities, it also sits outside many traditional labour protections. It calls for universal social security, including health insurance, accident cover, and income protection for gig workers.
What this data makes clear is that delivery speed is only one visible part of a much larger system. Working hours, incentive structures, pay transparency, insurance coverage, and grievance mechanisms shape daily working conditions far more than countdown timers.
What would really help gig workers?
Across policy documents, labour research, and worker testimonies, there is broad agreement that improving gig work conditionsrequires structural change rather than symbolic shifts. These priorities recur consistently.
Predictable earnings and workable hours
One of the most persistent challenges for gig workers is not just low pay, but unpredictable income. Earnings fluctuate by time of day, incentive cycles, and algorithmic adjustments, making it difficult to plan even a single workday.
As Yogesh describes, this uncertainty shapes his routine. “If we do it slowly, we will have to work 12–15 hours,” he explains. “If we want to finish in 10 hours, then we have to run.”
There is no fixed shift in his day. Platforms often require long working hours split into narrow morning and evening slots, while paying less during off-peak periods.
When pay keeps changing, time becomes the real cost—longer hours, split shifts, and bodies pushed to keep up, just to earn a day’s living. Photograph: (NDTV)
“They want four hours in the morning and five in the evening,” Yogesh says. “But if I start work at four or six in the morning, my body is done by afternoon. Why should I come back again at night?”
During the middle of the day, rates drop. “If we get Rs 30 per order at one time, it drops to Rs 22 in the middle of the day. The entire rate is cut.”
To earn around Rs 1,100 a day, Yogesh must complete 50–60 deliveries across 12 to 15 hours. Fuel, food, and daily expenses come out of this income. There is no paid leave, no sick days, and no guaranteed minimum earnings.
“If the money is right, everything will be right,” he says. “Otherwise, how long can someone keep running? I also have a family to take care of.”
Researchers and labour experts argue that transparent pay formulas—linked clearly to distance, time, and effort rather than shifting incentives — could reduce this pressure while allowing platforms to remain viable.
Social security that exists beyond policy
India’s labour framework formally recognises gig and platform workers as a distinct category and recommends benefits such as health insurance, accident cover, and income protection. But workers say these safeguards rarely translate into support on the ground.
“There is no concept of holidays here,” Yogesh explains. “If we fall ill or take a day off, we simply earn nothing that day. We get paid only for what we work, so the money automatically becomes less.”
While social security for gig workers exists in policy, translating these protections into everyday support remains an important next step. Photograph: (Quartz)
For many riders, illness or injury does not trigger protection—it simply ends income for the day. Unions argue that social security must move from recognition to enforceable coverage, backed by clear contributions and accessible enrolment.
Accountability when things go wrong
Beyond pay and hours, workers point to a lack of recourse when disputes arise—whether with customers, stores, or platforms.
Rajesh (name changed), a 36-year-old delivery partner with Swiggy, describes how responsibility often falls on riders even when they have little control.
“People look down on us,” he says. “Even at stores, managers and staff treat us like we don’t matter. If an item is badly packed, we’re told to deliver it anyway. Then the customer complains that the product is damaged and cancels the order. In the end, we are blamed, by the store and by the customer.”
When customers claim non-delivery, riders say the burden of proof rests with them.
“If the customer says they didn’t receive the order, the money is deducted from us,” Yogesh explains. “We are asked to prove it.”
Labour researchers argue that accessible grievance systems with human oversight — rather than automated penalties—are critical to restoring accountability and trust.
Safety beyond speed
While delivery timelines matter, safety experts emphasise that risk is shaped by fatigue, incentives, late-night work, and pressure to avoid complaints.
Orders often reach riders late from warehouses, but customer expectations remain unchanged. Phones ring repeatedly.
“When the customer shouts, we go faster so there is no complaint,” Yogesh says.
He describes nights when demand overwhelms supply, hundreds of orders handled by a limited number of riders. In such conditions, the willingness to take risks increases.
In systems designed for efficiency, responsibility often travels downward, settling on the rider.
When fast became the norm
India’s gig economy grew through digital access and urban convenience. What began as a necessity during lockdowns soon became a habit. Planning faded, and speed became normal.
Even as platforms soften the language of ultra-fast delivery, workers say the structure of work has changed far more slowly. The clock may be less visible, but it still shapes daily routines.
Stakeholder perspectives: Founders, policymakers, and competing priorities
Founders and platform leaders frame the system differently.
In public discussions, including a widely viewed appearance on Raj Shamani’s podcast, Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato and Blinkit, has argued that 10-minute delivery is driven by infrastructure density rather than rider haste. He has pushed back against claims that speed automatically leads to unsafe behaviour and warned that heavy regulation could reduce workers’ flexibility and opportunities.
Critics see these arguments as incomplete, pointing out that even when speed is structurally enabled, incentive design and penalty systems still shape worker behaviour.
Meanwhile, policymakers have begun to intervene. The Union Labour Ministry’s recent advisories urging platforms to drop explicit 10-minute claims signal growing concern about worker safety and accountability.
These perspectives underscore that the gig economy is not monolithic. It is shaped by competing pressures: businesses pursuing efficiency, workers seeking stability, consumers seeking convenience, and governments trying to balance all three.
In a gig economy shaped by platforms, policies, and people, every choice counts—patience, fairness, and understanding can make real work-life change possible. Photograph: (ET Now Facebook)
One thing emerges clearly – India’s gig economy is shaped by many hands, even if its weight is felt most by those on the road. Platforms decide how work is structured and rewarded, customers shape demand through expectations of speed, and governments step in when safety concerns become impossible to ignore. Caught between these forces are gig workers, adjusting their days to algorithms, traffic, weather, and shifting rules they rarely control.
Meaningful change, workers and experts agree, won’t come from rolling back slogans alone. It depends on platforms rethinking how speed is rewarded, and policymakers ensuring protections reach the ground. But about consumers recognising that patience can be a form of care?
Choosing patience: A consumer role
For many urban consumers, instant delivery has become default. Naman Sharma, a 25-year-old corporate professional in Gurugram, says speed once felt harmless.
“I never really questioned it, but a decade before, we used to plan our purchases. If we ran out of something, we waited or stepped out. Life still worked.”
Choosing patience over speed is a small consumer shift, but one that can mean safer roads, fairer work, and dignity for the people powering our convenience. Photograph: (iStock)
Over time, watching riders navigate traffic late at night made him reconsider.
“If waiting half an hour instead of 10 means someone gets home safely, that feels like a fair trade,” he says.
“I don’t mind paying a little extra if it actually improves their working conditions. They make our lives easier. The least we can do is not make their lives harder.”
Is the rollback enough?
Nitesh Kumar Das, Organising Secretary of the Gig Workers Association (GigWA), views recent rollbacks as an acknowledgement, not a resolution.
“We welcome the rollback because it acknowledges that extreme speed is unsafe,” he says. “But workers tell us that the pressure on the ground remains.”
“Until predictable earnings, fair pay, and safety are treated as non-negotiable,” he adds, “daily working conditions will not change.”
Beyond speed, towards fairness
Perhaps it’s time to pause and ask: Does India’s gig economy need faster deliveries or systems that balance efficiency with protection?
If incentives reward safety, if social security is enforced, if grievance mechanisms work, and if consumers accept slightly longer waits, meaningful improvement is possible.
Not just for Yogesh but for millions like him.
Real convenience works best when responsibility is shared by those who order, those who build platforms, and those who deliver every single day.
