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Platforming precarity: Data narratives of workers sustaining urban platform services
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by
Aayush Rathi, Abhishek Sekharan, Ambika Tandon, Chetna V. M., Chiara Furtado, Nishkala Sekhar, and Sriharsha Devulapalli
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published
Oct 15, 2024
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filed under:
Labour Futures,
Digital Economy,
Homepage,
Digital Labour,
Featured,
Researchers at Work
CIS conducted quantitative surveys with over 800 workers employed in the app-based taxi and delivery sectors across 4 cities in India as part of the ‘Labour Futures’ project supported by the Internet Society Foundation. The surveys covered key employment indicators, including earnings and working hours, work-related cost burdens, income and social security, and platform policies and management. Findings from these surveys are presented as data visualisation briefs centring workers’ everyday experiences. These data briefs form a foundational evidence base for policy and action around labour rights, social protection, and urban inclusion in platform work.
Located in
RAW
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Gig and platform workers’ perspectives on worker collectives
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by
Shaik Salauddin
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published
Aug 13, 2024
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filed under:
Digital Labour,
Researchers at Work,
Labour Futures,
Digital Economy
This report highlights findings from a survey conducted by the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union on platform workers’ perspectives around various worker collectives, particularly platform worker unions and cooperative societies. The survey was conducted with workers working for app-based platform companies like Ola, Uber, InDriver, Swiggy, Zomato, and Flipkart.
Located in
RAW
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Karnataka’s uniform fare policy—Do attempts at parity consider the impact on workers?
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by
Chiara Furtado and Nishkala Sekhar
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published
Jul 08, 2024
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filed under:
Digital Labour,
Researchers at Work,
Labour Futures,
Digital Economy
Chiara Furtado and Nishkala Sekhar write in The News Minute about the Karnataka transport department’s February 2024 fare policy aiming for parity between aggregator (app-based) and other taxis. While policy interventions towards parity is a welcome step, the article highlights how inequalities and systemic barriers to parity remain for workers.
Located in
RAW
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‘Future of work’ or 21st–century oppressed labour?: Findings from an AIGWU survey with 50 Urban Company housekeeping workers in Bengaluru
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by
Nihira Ram
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published
May 16, 2024
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filed under:
Labour Futures,
Digital Economy,
Gig Work,
Digital Labour,
Researchers at Work
n this essay, Nihira Ram shares findings from a survey done by the All India Gig Workers Union with more than 50 migrant workers living in a slum in Bengaluru. The workers primarily provided cleaning and domestic services on the platform, Urban Company (previously UrbanClap).
Located in
RAW
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That Is Not A Livelihood – That Is Helplessness”: Field notes from the Fraazo Delivery Workers Strike in Noida, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad
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by
Rikta Krishnaswamy
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published
Apr 24, 2024
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filed under:
Labour Futures,
Digital Economy,
Gig Work,
Digital Labour,
Researchers at Work
In this essay, Rikta Krishnaswamy of the All India Gig Workers’ Union (AIGWU) narrates her experiences of organising and supporting delivery workers’ collective action against Fraazo (a now-defunct platform for produce and grocery delivery). Her essay sheds light on the challenges workers face in organising for better conditions of work. She describes how platforms hide behind legal smokescreens and threats of police action to shirk their responsibility as employers. To make matters worse, obscure employment terms and work management systems make it harder for workers to seek redress from the government through labour dispute resolution processes.
The essay is illustrative of how digital platforms have exploited and violated freedoms of the gig workers they employ, while facing no accountability. For this to change, gig workers have to be guaranteed employment rights along with collective rights to their data.
Located in
RAW
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The Platform Economy’s Gatekeeping of Class and Caste Dominance in Urban India
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by
Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi
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published
Apr 18, 2024
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last modified
Apr 19, 2024 03:11 AM
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filed under:
Labour Futures,
Digital Economy,
Homepage,
Digital Labour,
Featured,
Researchers at Work
Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi contributed an essay on how gated society management apps like MyGate and NoBrokerHood feed on caste and income inequalities in new datafied forms. The essay features in The Formalization of Social Precarities, an anthology edited by Murali Shanmugavelan and Aiha Nguyen and published with Data & Society.
Located in
RAW
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Your economy, our livelihoods: A policy brief by the All India Gig Workers’ Union
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by
W.C. Shukla, Rikta Krishnaswamy, Rohin Garg, Gunjan Jena, and S.B. Natarajan
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published
Jan 30, 2024
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last modified
Jan 31, 2024 12:02 AM
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filed under:
Labour Futures,
Digital Economy,
Gig Work,
Digital Labour,
Reserve Bank of India,
Featured,
Homepage
In this policy brief, the All India Gig Workers’ Union (AIGWU) presents its critique on NITI Aayog’s report on India’s platform economy. Through experiences from over 3 years of organising gig workers across India, they highlight fallacies in the report that disregard workers’ experiences and realities. They present alternative recommendations that are responsive to these realities, and offer pathways towards rights-affirming futures for workers in the platform economy.
Located in
RAW
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Strategies to Organise Platform Workers
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by
Chiaro Furtado
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published
Oct 22, 2023
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filed under:
Labour Futures,
Digital Economy,
Researchers at Work,
Gig Work,
Platform-Work,
Featured,
RAW Research,
Homepage
In 2022, the Centre for Internet and Society hosted a panel with Akkanut Wantanasombut, Ayoade Ibrahim, Rikta Krishnaswamy, and Sofía Scasserra at RightsCon, an annual summit on technology and human rights.
Located in
RAW
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Getting the (Digital) Indo-Pacific Economic Framework Right
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by
Arindrajit Basu
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published
Oct 03, 2022
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filed under:
Privacy,
Internet Governance,
Digital Governance,
Digital Economy
On the eve of the Tokyo Quad Summit in May 2022, President Biden unveiled the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), visualising cooperation across the Indo-Pacific based on four pillars: trade; supply chains; clean energy, decarbonisation and infrastructure; and tax and anti-corruption. Galvanised by the US, the other 13 founding members of the IPEF are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The first official in-person Ministerial meeting was held in Los Angeles on 9 September 2022.
Located in
Internet Governance
/
Blog
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Platforms, Power, and Politics: Perspectives from Domestic and Care Work in India
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by
Aayush Rathi, and Ambika Tandon
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published
Jun 27, 2021
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last modified
Jul 07, 2021 03:19 PM
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filed under:
Digital Economy,
Researchers at Work,
Platform-Work,
Featured,
RAW Research,
Homepage,
Digital Domestic Work
CIS has been undertaking a two-year project studying the entry of digital platforms in the domestic and care work in India, supported by the Association for Progressive Communications as part of the Feminist Internet Research Network. Implemented through 2019-21, the objective of the project is to use a feminist lens to critique platform modalities and orient platformisation dynamics in radically different, worker-first ways. Ambika Tandon and Aayush Rathi led the research team at CIS. The Domestic Workers’ Rights Union is a partner in the implementation of the project, as co-researchers. Geeta Menon, head of DWRU, was an advisor on the project, and the research team consisted of Parijatha G.P., Radha Keerthana, Zeenathunnisa, and Sumathi, who are office holders in the union and are responsible for organising workers and addressing their concerns.
Located in
RAW