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Understanding Feminist Infrastructures: An Exploratory Study of Online Feminist Content Creation Spaces in India
https://cis-india.org/raw/understanding-feminist-structures
<b>This report explores the growth of feminist infrastructures (including the various interpretations of the term), through research on feminist publishing, content creation and curation spaces and how they have informed the contemporary discourse on feminism, gender, and sexuality in India. The rise of online feminist publications, and related digital media content creation and curation spaces, has engendered new forums for debate, networking, and community-building. This report looks at some of the challenges of developing such publications and platforms, and the role of digital infrastructures in mediating contemporary feminist work and politics.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://cis-india.org/Feminist_Infrastructures_Report" class="external-link">Click here</a> to download the full report.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify;">The internet and digital media technologies have played an important role in contemporary feminist practice – in addition to social media activism, their growing prevalence in academia, advocacy, and creative expression illustrate how digital media contributes to efforts to question asymmetries of power and knowledge. In the last few years, the concept of a feminist internet and forms of feminist infrastructures have emerged as crucial entry points to understand the affordances of the digital and its many challenges, especially for women and other structurally disadvantaged communities.Feminist content creation has been integral to contemporary feminist work in India, and is an entry-point into discussions on what could be a feminist internet. The growth of online feminist publications, and related digital media content creation and curation spaces, has engendered new forums for debate, networking, and community-building. This study looks at the development of feminist infrastructures (including various interpretations of the term) through an exploration of online feminist publishing, content creation and curation spaces, and their impact on the contemporary discourse on feminism, gender, and sexuality in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Through conversations with select online feminist publishing, content creation, and curation spaces, this study outlines motivations for choosing certain media, nature of content, languages and design, and how such choices inform practice and politics. In addition to the above, we also conducted two workshops on feminist infrastructure wishlists, and feminist principles of design and infrastructure. These conversations have offered several insights on the landscape of feminist content creation in India, and the affordances and challenges of digital technologies in facilitating contemporary feminist work. An overarching aim of the project is to unpack the term ‘feminist infrastructure’ and its interpretations in the context of the transition to digital content creation and publication. We aim to continue these conversations with a focus on the larger, often invisible role of digital infrastructures in the development of discourse on human rights, free speech and safety, to understand what are challenges to, and efforts being undertaken to create an inclusive, accessible and feminist internet.</p>
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<h3>Contributors</h3>
<div><strong>Research and Writing </strong>Puthiya Purayil Sneha and Saumyaa Naidu
<strong><br /></strong></div>
<div><strong>Review </strong>Dr. Padmini Ray Murray, Design Beku</div>
<div><strong>Design </strong>Saumyaa Naidu and Yatharth</div>
<div><strong>Copy</strong> <strong>Editing </strong>The Clean Copy</div>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/understanding-feminist-structures'>https://cis-india.org/raw/understanding-feminist-structures</a>
</p>
No publisherPuthiya Purayil Sneha and Saumyaa NaiduResearchers at WorkRAW BlogResearch2024-03-25T13:02:28ZBlog EntryWorkers’ experiences in app-based taxi and delivery sectors: Key initial findings from multi-city quantitative surveys
https://cis-india.org/raw/workers-experiences-in-app-based-taxi-and-delivery-sectors-key-initial-findings-from-multi-city-quantitative-surveys
<b>In 2021-22, the labour research vertical at CIS conducted quantitative surveys with over 1,000 taxi and delivery workers employed in the app-based and offline sectors. The surveys covered key employment indicators, including earnings and working hours, initial investments and work-related cost burdens, income and social security, platform policies and management, and employment arrangements. The surveys were part of the ‘Labour Futures’ project supported by the Internet Society Foundation.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">It has been over a decade since app-based delivery and taxi sectors began operations in India, and have since expanded to several metropolitan and smaller cities. These sectors together account for the largest proportion of the platform workforce in India. Workers’ collective action and demands have revealed extractive labour practices in the platform economy. However, there has been a dearth of reliable quantitative data on essential labour and economic wellbeing indicators for workers. In 2021-22, we conducted surveys with workers in the taxi and delivery sectors aiming to build an evidence base for worker-first policy-making in the platform economy. 1,048 workers were surveyed across four tier 1 and tier 2 cities—Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Lucknow, and Guwahati.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Research questions</h3>
<ol>
<li>What is the nature and scale of platform operations in the delivery and taxi sectors within various tier 1 and tier 2 cities in India?</li>
<li>What are the socio-economic contexts shaping workers’ decisions around transitioning in and out of the platform workforce in the delivery and taxi sectors?</li>
<li>What are the tangible and intangible costs, and conditions of work that workers navigate to sustain their employment on delivery and taxi platforms?</li>
<li>How does the assemblage of informal and formal structures, actors, and systems of work management shape economic outcomes for workers on delivery and taxi platforms?</li>
</ol>
<h3><br />Key initial findings</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Diverse employment arrangements</b><br />There is a sizeable presence of heterogeneous work organisation systems on both app-based delivery and taxi sectors, which diverge from an on-demand model. These systems mediate multiple aspects of everyday work allocation and processes, spatio-temporal rhythms of work, platform design and management, modes of labour control, levels of reintermediation, and employment arrangements.<br /><br />In the delivery sector, typologies are driven by platform models and work processes. Typologies of work organisation and control in the taxi sector, on the other hand, are centred around diverse employment arrangements and vehicle ownership models.<br /><br /><b>Socio-economic vulnerabilities impacting work outcomes</b><br />Workers in both the delivery and taxi sectors face a number of socioeconomic vulnerabilities that influence their entry and continued employment in platform work. Key motivating factors to enter platform work involved the lack of alternative employment opportunities (over 50 percent in both sectors) and the possibility of better pay than other available jobs (over 40 percent in both sectors).<br /><br />An overwhelming proportion of workers (over 95 percent in both sectors) were engaged in platform work as their main source of income, as opposed to part-time employment. Workers also faced significant economic burdens in various ways such as being sole earners in their household, having multiple financial dependents, providing remittances back home, and so on. Worsening these burdens was the widespread income insecurity that workers faced in both sectors—for around 50 percent of them, earnings from platform work were insufficient for covering basic household expenses.<br /><br /><b>Insufficient earnings and rising work-related expenses</b><br />Workers' experiences highlight how the majority of workers are forced to deal with low-wage outcomes, worsened by a reduction in bonuses, and high operational work-related expenses. Earnings remain low and uncertain for workers despite the fact that they put in long work hours. At the median level, workers on delivery platforms were working 70 hours a week, and those on taxi platforms were working an even higher 84 hours a week.<br /><br />In addition to platform charges and commissions, numerous work-related expenses such as fuel and vehicle maintenance costs are important factors that determine take home earnings for workers. The median net earnings, after accounting for all these costs, were INR 3,800 for delivery workers, and INR 5,000 for taxi workers. When adjusted for standard weekly work hours (48 hours/week), these earnings do not meet national minimum wage standards.<br /><br /><b>Absence of occupational health measures and social protection</b><br />Workers in both delivery and taxi sectors are already working immensely long hours in order to try and make adequate earnings on the platform, sometimes working almost double the amount when compared to standard weekly work hours. They also faced additional occupational health and safety risks during their work. Workers in both sectors faced grievous risks during work hours including those relating to road safety (around 80 percent), weather conditions (around 40 percent; 52 percent for delivery workers), theft (around 30 percent), and physical assault (around 25 percent).<br /><br />To make matters worse, workers were not provided adequate social protections to cope with workplace safety risks. Workers in the taxi sector had very low levels of access to crucial protections such as health insurance (6 percent) and accident insurance (28 percent). Access was relatively higher for workers in the delivery sector—32 percent had access to health insurance, and 62 percent had access to accident insurance. However, workers faced several barriers in receiving these benefits and protections, owing to burdensome and unreliable insurance claims processes. <br /><br /><b>Upcoming outputs</b><br />We hope that findings from these surveys are instrumental in speaking to extant and developing labour policy interventions, as well as adjacent policy areas including social protection, urban and infrastructural development, and sectoral regulation.<br /><br />In the coming weeks, we will be publishing a series of city briefs for each of the four survey cities. These briefs will be presented as data visualisation narratives, showing how workers’ experiences with platforms vary across tier 1 and tier 2 cities.<br /><br /><a class="external-link" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0)</a></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">The views and opinions expressed on this page are those of their individual authors. Unless the opposite is explicitly stated, or unless the opposite may be reasonably inferred, CIS does not subscribe to these views and opinions which belong to their individual authors. CIS does not accept any responsibility, legal or otherwise, for the views and opinions of these individual authors. For an official statement from CIS on a particular issue, please contact us directly.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/workers-experiences-in-app-based-taxi-and-delivery-sectors-key-initial-findings-from-multi-city-quantitative-surveys'>https://cis-india.org/raw/workers-experiences-in-app-based-taxi-and-delivery-sectors-key-initial-findings-from-multi-city-quantitative-surveys</a>
</p>
No publisherAayush Rathi, Abhishek Sekharan, Ambika Tandon, Chetna V. M., Chiara Furtado, and Nishkala SekharGig WorkDigital LabourResearchers at WorkLabour Futures2024-02-16T01:27:07ZBlog EntryUnpacking Algorithmic Infrastructures: Mapping the Data Supply Chain in the Healthcare Industry in India
https://cis-india.org/raw/unpacking-algorithmic-infrastructures
<b>The Unpacking Algorithmic Infrastructures project, supported by a grant from the Notre Dame-IBM Tech Ethics Lab, aims to study the Al data supply chain infrastructure in healthcare in India, and aims to critically analyse auditing frameworks that are utilised to develop and deploy AI systems in healthcare. It will map the prevalence of Al auditing practices within the sector to arrive at an understanding of frameworks that may be developed to check for ethical considerations - such as algorithmic bias and harm within healthcare systems, especially against marginalised and vulnerable populations. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There has been an increased interest in health data in India over the recent years, where health data policies encourage sharing of data with different entities, at the same time, there has been a growing interest in deployment of Al in healthcare from startups, hospitals, as well as multinational technology companies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Given the invisibility of algorithmic infrastructures that underlie the digital economy and the important decisions these technologies can make about patients' health, it's important to look at how these systems are developed, how data flows within them, how these systems are tested and verified and what ethical considerations inform their deployment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/ResearchersWork.png/@@images/00a848c7-b7f7-41b4-8bd9-45f2928fd44e.png" alt="Researchers at Work" class="image-inline" title="Researchers at Work" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>The </strong><strong>Unpacking Algorithmic Infrastructures</strong> project, supported by a grant from the Notre Dame-IBM Tech Ethics Lab, aims to study the Al data supply chain infrastructure in healthcare in India, and aims to critically analyse auditing frameworks that are utilised to develop and deploy AI systems in healthcare. It will map the prevalence of Al auditing practices within the sector to arrive at an understanding of frameworks that may be developed to check for ethical considerations - such as algorithmic bias and harm within healthcare systems, especially against marginalised and vulnerable populations.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Research Questions</h3>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">To what extent organisations take ethical principles into account when developing AI , managing the training and testing dataset, and while deploying the AI in the healthcare sector.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">What best practices for auditing can be put in place based on our critical understanding of AI data supply chains and auditing frameworks being employed in the healthcare sector.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">What is a possible auditing framework that is best suited to organisations in the majority world.</li>
</ol>
<h3>Research Design and Methods</h3>
<p>For this study, we will use a comprehensive mixed methods approach. We will survey professionals working towards designing, developing and deploying AI systems for healthcare in India, across technology and healthcare organizations. We will also undertake in-depth interviews with experts who are part of key stakeholder groups.</p>
<p>We hereby invite researchers, technologists, healthcare professionals, and others working at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare to speak to us and help us inform the study. You may contact Shweta Monhandas at <a href="mailto:shweta@cis-india.org">shweta@cis-india.org</a></p>
<ol> </ol>
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<p>Research Team: Amrita Sengupta, Chetna V. M., Pallavi Bedi, Puthiya Purayil Sneha, Shweta Mohandas and Yatharth.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/unpacking-algorithmic-infrastructures'>https://cis-india.org/raw/unpacking-algorithmic-infrastructures</a>
</p>
No publisherAmrita Sengupta, Chetna V. M., Pallavi Bedi, Puthiya Purayil Sneha, Shweta Mohandas and YatharthHealth TechRAW BlogResearchData ProtectionHealthcareResearchers at WorkArtificial Intelligence2024-01-05T02:38:22ZBlog EntryUser Experiences of Digital Financial Risks and Harms
https://cis-india.org/raw/user-experiences-of-digital-financial-risks-and-harms
<b>The reach and use of digital financial services has risen in recent years without a commensurate increase in digital literacy and access. Through this project, supported by a grant from Google(.)org, we will examine the landscape of potential risks and harms posed by digital financial services, and the disproportionate risk that information asymmetry and barriers to access pose for users, especially certain marginalised communities. </b>
<h3>Project Background</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong> </strong>There is a big evidence gap in the understanding of the financial risks and harms experienced by users of digital financial services. Consequently, adequate consumer protection frameworks and processes to address these harms have been lagging. A survey of 32,000 Indian consumers found <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/42-indians-experienced-financial-fraud-in-last-3-years-report/articleshow/93341725.cms">only 17%</a> who lost money through banking frauds were able to recoup their funds. Filling this gap is crucial to inform responsive policy making, platform design and data governance.</p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">While a lot more attention is paid to financial frauds and scams, through this study, we aim to situate these alongside experiences of harms that are understudied and sometimes overlooked. Users may also experience financial harm, when negatively impacted by:</p>
<ol>
<li>Financial misinformation</li>
<li>Loss of control over their assets</li>
<li>Loss of potential income</li>
<li>Difficulty accessing social protection</li>
<li>Financial abuse perpetrated alongside other forms of domestic and family abuse </li>
<li>Unsustainable levels of debt, i.e. over-indebtedness, and </li>
<li>Exclusion from financial services</li></ol>
<ol dir="ltr"></ol>
<p dir="ltr">The Centre for Internet and Society is undertaking a mixed methods study to better understand user awareness, perceptions and experiences of digital financial risks and harms.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">For this study, we will survey nearly 4000 users, with differing levels of access to digital devices, digital services and the internet, and undertake semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with specific target groups and stakeholders. We aim to highlight the experiences of persons with disabilities, gender and sexual minorities, the elderly, women, and regional language first users; to better understand how discrimination and exclusion may increase their burden of risk when using digital financial services.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr"><strong>Key research questions guiding our project are:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">How are digital financial risks understood and experienced by users of digital financial services? Which socioeconomic factors amplify risks for different user groups?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">What concerns have emerged relating to data privacy, misinformation, identity theft and other forms of social engineering and mobile app based fraud?</li>
<li>How accessible are providers’ and government’s platform based reporting and grievance redressal systems?</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">What role can fintech platforms, social media platforms, banking institutions, and regulatory bodies play in reducing digital financial risks across the ecosystem?</li></ol>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Project Aims</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Through this study, we aim to:</p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Assess the financial risks and harms users are exposed to when using social media, digital banking, and fintech platforms. While looking at general users, we will also specifically explore this experience for the elderly, gender and sexual minorities, regional language users and persons with visual disabilities.</li>
<li>Develop a framework to categorise the nature of vulnerabilities, risks and harms faced by the concerned user groups</li>
<li>Create a credible evidence base for key stakeholders with regards to experiences of digital financial risks and harm.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Provide recommendations for better policy and platform design to address harms, specifically those arising from lack of accessibility and information asymmetry.</li>
<li>Identify best practices to respond to digital risks and foster safety and equity in digital financial services</li></ol>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Come Talk to Us:</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">If you have experiences or insights to share, or if you're interested in learning more about our study, please reach out.<br /><br />We also invite researchers, financial service providers, developers and designers of fintech platforms, and civil society organisations working on digital safety, to speak to us and help inform the study. You may contact <a class="mail-link" href="mailto:garima@cis-india.org">garima@cis-india.org</a></p>
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<p><strong>Research Team</strong>: Amrita Sengupta, Chiara Furtado, Garima Agrawal, Nishkala Sekhar, Puthiya Purayil Sneha, and Yesha Tshering Paul</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/user-experiences-of-digital-financial-risks-and-harms'>https://cis-india.org/raw/user-experiences-of-digital-financial-risks-and-harms</a>
</p>
No publisherAmrita Sengupta, Chiara Furtado, Garima Agrawal, Nishkala Sekhar, Puthiya Purayil Sneha, and Yesha Tshering PaulFinancial TechnologyFinancial PlatformsDigital Financial HarmsResearchers at WorkFeaturedRAW BlogAccessibilityDigital LendingRAW ResearchResearchHomepage2023-12-22T16:05:26ZBlog EntryStrategies to Organise Platform Workers
https://cis-india.org/raw/strategies-to-organise-platform-workers-rightscon
<b>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. </b>
<p><b><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/raw/strategies-to-organise-platform-workers/at_download/file">Click</a></b> to download the full report</p>
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<h3>Event Report</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This event report is based on proceedings from a panel hosted at the 2022 edition of RightsCon. Hosted by the labour and digitalisation team at CIS, the panel brought together seasoned labour organisers, activists, and researchers working across Thailand, Nigeria, India, and Argentina. The panellists represented a diverse group of worker organisations, including transnational federations, national unions, and informally organised movements.<br /><br />Their experiences of organising in research and practice infused our discussion with insight into collective action struggles across varied sectors and platform economies in the global south. Collective resistance among platform workers has witnessed a sustained rise in these economies over the past three years, with demands for transparency and accountability from platforms, and for a guarantee of rights and protections from governments.<br /><br />Through this panel, we sought to answer:</p>
<ol>
<li>How have workers’ organisations overcome challenges in sustained collective action?</li>
<li>What have been unique aspects of organising in the global south?</li>
<li>Which strategies have been gaining traction for organising workers and mobilising other stakeholders?</li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><br />Placing workers’ participation front and centre, the panellists incorporated common threads around campaigning, education, and mobilisation for increasing worker participation, as well as bargaining with the government for legal and social protections. The panellists highlighted that it’s the resilience and resistance led by workers that drive the way for sustained organising. This panel hoped to spotlight steps taken in that direction, where organising efforts strive to form, sustain, and champion worker-led movements.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Contributors</h3>
<p><b>Panellists: </b><br />Akkanut Wantanasombut<br />Ayoade Ibrahim<br />Rikta Krishnawamy <br />Sofía Scasserra</p>
<p><b>Worker organisations in focus:</b><br />Tamsang-Tamsong<br />National Union of Professional App-based Transport Workers<br />International Alliance of App-based Transport Workers<br />All India Gig Workers’ Union <br />Federación Argentina de Empleados de Comercio y Servicios<br />Asociación de Personal de Plataformas</p>
<p><b>Conceptualisation and planning</b>: Ambika Tandon, Chiara Furtado, Aayush Rathi, and Abhishek Sekharan</p>
<p><b>Author</b>: Chiara Furtado<br /><b>Reviewers</b>: Ambika Tandon and Nishkala Sekhar<br /><b>Designer</b>: Annushka Jaliwala<br /><br />This event report is part of research supported by the Internet Society Foundation under the ‘Labour futures’ grant.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/strategies-to-organise-platform-workers-rightscon'>https://cis-india.org/raw/strategies-to-organise-platform-workers-rightscon</a>
</p>
No publisherfurtadoLabour FuturesDigital EconomyResearchers at WorkGig WorkPlatform-WorkFeaturedRAW ResearchHomepage2023-10-22T09:54:52ZBlog EntryStrategies to Organise Platform Workers
https://cis-india.org/raw/strategies-to-organise-platform-workers
<b></b>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/strategies-to-organise-platform-workers'>https://cis-india.org/raw/strategies-to-organise-platform-workers</a>
</p>
No publisherfurtadoResearchers at Work2023-10-20T17:04:03ZFilePDC 2022
https://cis-india.org/raw/pdc-2022
<b>Divyansha Sehgal and Yatharth presented their work - Designing Domestic Work Platforms - on critical design assessments of gig work platforms at the Participatory Design Conference.</b>
<p>For more detail on the conference held from 19 August to 1 September 2022, <a class="external-link" href="https://pdc2022.org/">click here</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/pdc-2022'>https://cis-india.org/raw/pdc-2022</a>
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No publisherAdminLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T07:05:09ZNews ItemAs Equals: Frequently Asked Questions
https://cis-india.org/raw/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions
<b>Chiara Furtado was a panellist on the ‘As Equals’ series hosted by CNN since 2018 which aims to reveal what systemic gender inequality looks like. Chiara participated in a roundtable on digital harms and gender equality. </b>
<p>For more information, <a class="external-link" href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/06/world/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions-intl/index.html">click here</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions'>https://cis-india.org/raw/as-equals-frequently-asked-questions</a>
</p>
No publisherAdminLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T06:54:59ZNews ItemOnline cab booking | Why finding a cab is a nightmare now
https://cis-india.org/raw/money-control-july-14-2022-why-finding-a-cab-is-now-a-nightmare
<b>Many drivers said the rise in commissions payable to ride-hailing platforms and higher fuel costs, among other expenses, have made it impossible for them to survive in the once-lucrative profession.</b>
<p>Aayush Rathi was quoted in this news article on how corporate policy is leading to difficulties in hailing cabs online:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Grassroots organisers have indicated a sizeable reduction in fleet sizes of Ola and Uber compared to pre-March 2020. There are numerous possible reasons for this,” said Aayush Rathi, a senior researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society. “One is the cost-of-living crisis in urban India that has solidified the reverse migration of the early Covid days. Then, the so-called moratoriums on loan repayments ended up increasing the total liability on drivers. Many drivers may have sold their cars or defaulted on loan payments.”</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Click to read the <a class="external-link" href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/why-finding-a-cab-is-now-a-nightmare-8823881.html">full article</a> published by Money Control on July 14, 2022</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/money-control-july-14-2022-why-finding-a-cab-is-now-a-nightmare'>https://cis-india.org/raw/money-control-july-14-2022-why-finding-a-cab-is-now-a-nightmare</a>
</p>
No publisherHaripriya SureshLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T06:34:22ZNews ItemLabouring (on) the app: agency and organisation of work in the platform economy
https://cis-india.org/raw/taylor-and-francis-gender-and-development-volume-30-2022-ambika-tandon-and-abhishek-sekharan-labouring-on-the-app-agency-and-organisation-of-work-in-the-platform-economy
<b>Ambika Tandon and Abhishek Sekharan published an academic paper highlighting the importance of women’s networks of information sharing and care in navigating opaque platform design. The paper is part of an issue of Gender and Development on ‘Women, Work and the Digital Economy’. Gender and Development is one of the few academic journals that priorities practitioners' experiences over theoretical contributions.
</b>
<h2>Abstract</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Women have a long history of organising in the informal economy, despite facing several challenges around geographical dispersion, time poverty, and lack of recognition. These challenges persist in the platform economy which pose similar concerns around precarious irregular work. Recent literature has documented the adoption of traditional and novel strategies to resist platform exploitation, through algorithmic manipulation, public demonstrations and logout strikes, and legal action. This paper explores the gendered realities that shape workers’ organising strategies and demands.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Using protests organised by women beauty workers in India as a case study, we discuss the factors underlying and leading to collectivisation. We find that women’s networks of information sharing and care are instrumental in navigating opaque and inefficient algorithms that fail to determine fully the organisation of work. We further examine the role of informal networks of information sharing in building workers’ identities which are instrumental in collective organising. Finally, we discuss the strategies and forms of organising adopted by women workers in this sector, which resonate with the rich history of organising in the informal economy.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Click to access <span class="authors" style="text-align: left; ">Ambika Tandon & Abhishek Sekharan</span><span style="text-align: left; float: none; "><span> </span></span>2022 <span class="art_title" style="text-align: left; ">Labouring (on) the app: agency and organisation of work in the platform economy,</span><span style="text-align: left; float: none; "><span> </span></span><span class="serial_title" style="text-align: left; ">Gender & Development,</span><span style="text-align: left; float: none; "><span> </span></span><span class="volume_issue" style="text-align: left; ">30:3,</span><span style="text-align: left; float: none; "><span> </span></span><span class="page_range" style="text-align: left; ">687-706,</span><span style="text-align: left; float: none; "><span> </span></span><span class="doi_link" style="text-align: left; ">DOI:<span> </span><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2022.2130515">10.1080/13552074.2022.2130515</a>.</span> Full <a class="external-link" href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13552074.2022.2130515?journalCode=cgde20">article here</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/taylor-and-francis-gender-and-development-volume-30-2022-ambika-tandon-and-abhishek-sekharan-labouring-on-the-app-agency-and-organisation-of-work-in-the-platform-economy'>https://cis-india.org/raw/taylor-and-francis-gender-and-development-volume-30-2022-ambika-tandon-and-abhishek-sekharan-labouring-on-the-app-agency-and-organisation-of-work-in-the-platform-economy</a>
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No publisherAmbika Tandon and Abhishek SekharanRAW ResearchLabour FuturesRAW PublicationsResearchers at Work2023-07-04T06:28:57ZBlog EntryWomen at (gig) work: When financial freedom comes at a cost
https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-may-14-2023-aiswarya-raj-women-at-gig-work-unruly-customers-job-insecurity-prejudice-against-women-financial-freedom-comes-at-a-cost-for-women-working-as-delivery-executives-cab-drivers
<b>Chiara Furtado was quoted in a news article on women’s experiences working on ride-hailing and delivery platforms. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Chiara Furtado, researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society, says since women make up only 0.5 and 1% of the workforce in these two sectors – food delivery and cab-hailing industry – the standardised policies for workers end up being gendered. “Algorithm incentivises longer hours of work, late shifts, peak hours and consecutive rides, which prove to be discriminating against women,” she adds.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Furtado says that findings have revealed that in times of crisis, most safety mechanisms tend to be more restrictive and end up curtailing the freedom and agency of women. Khatoon elucidates Furtado’s point with her own example. “I ride an e-scooter and don’t get orders to spots above a distance of 5 km. This decreases my area and income. Those who can travel 20 km get Rs 100 per ride,” she says.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Companies claim to offer insurance, but the way they externalize fuel costs, they externalize risk and safety costs too. Apart from general safety, they have other grievances, such as toilets, which have gender underpinnings to it,” says Furtado.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Click to read the full article published in the Indian Express <a class="external-link" href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/women-at-gig-work-unruly-customers-job-insecurity-prejudice-against-women-financial-freedom-comes-at-a-cost-for-women-working-as-delivery-executives-cab-drivers-8607997/">here</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-may-14-2023-aiswarya-raj-women-at-gig-work-unruly-customers-job-insecurity-prejudice-against-women-financial-freedom-comes-at-a-cost-for-women-working-as-delivery-executives-cab-drivers'>https://cis-india.org/raw/indian-express-may-14-2023-aiswarya-raj-women-at-gig-work-unruly-customers-job-insecurity-prejudice-against-women-financial-freedom-comes-at-a-cost-for-women-working-as-delivery-executives-cab-drivers</a>
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No publisherAiswarya RajLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T06:12:05ZNews ItemGig Workers Are Being Stabbed, Beaten, and Abused in India
https://cis-india.org/raw/wired-uk-april-12-2023-varsha-bansal-gig-workers-are-being-stabbed-beaten-and-abused-india
<b>An Uber driver was mugged. An Ola driver was beaten and left in a coma. Platform workers say tech companies are doing little to protect them.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Aaysh Rathi, was quoted in a news article on the violence that platform workers face in their line of work. Wired UK published the article, as part of the Pulitzer Centre’s support for reportage on the harms of technological systems.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Rathi says that a responsive grievance mechanism for gig workers is “completely absent” and continues to be “one of the top three demands” that workers have. “The firms are able to provide more responsive services to customers,” he says. “The workers are as important if not more [than customers], and they should be able to extend the same kind of mechanisms, practices, and policies to workers.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"For one in three people while going to work fearing that they might be robbed today or face physical assault is alarmingly high."</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/gig-workers-are-being-stabbed-beaten-and-abused-india">Click</a> to read the full article published in the Pulitzer Center on April 12, 2023</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/wired-uk-april-12-2023-varsha-bansal-gig-workers-are-being-stabbed-beaten-and-abused-india'>https://cis-india.org/raw/wired-uk-april-12-2023-varsha-bansal-gig-workers-are-being-stabbed-beaten-and-abused-india</a>
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No publisherVarsha BansalLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T06:04:07ZNews ItemIndia’s gig economy drivers face bust in the country’s digital boom
https://cis-india.org/raw/tech-crunch-jagmeet-singh-india-gig-workers-problems
<b>Workers on platforms like Uber, Ola and Swiggy deal with blocked accounts, other backlash for speaking out over poor conditions</b>
<p>Aayush Rathi was quoted in a news article published by TechCrunch, a leading publication on technology and business reporting:</p>
<blockquote class="quoted">“Whenever a worker faces a challenge, it’s very hard for them to get recourse from anywhere. Most of these big platforms are geared toward alleviating customers’ grievances,” said Aayush Rathi, research and programs lead at the Centre for Internet and Society.</blockquote>
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<p><br />To read the full article published by TechCrunch on 25 January 2023, <a class="external-link" href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/25/india-gig-workers-problems/">click here</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/tech-crunch-jagmeet-singh-india-gig-workers-problems'>https://cis-india.org/raw/tech-crunch-jagmeet-singh-india-gig-workers-problems</a>
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No publisherJagmeet SinghLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T05:02:22ZNews ItemGlobal Perspectives on Women, Work and Digital Labour Platforms
https://cis-india.org/raw/global-perspectives-on-women-work-and-digital-labour-platforms
<b>Ambika Tandon was a panellist at the launch event for the Global Perspectives on Women, Work and Digital Labour Platforms organized by Digital Future Society on July 13, 2022 on online platform.</b>
<p>The panel discussed the gendered nature of gig work across different global south contexts. The other panellists were Francisca Pereyra, from the Instituto de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, and Uma Rani, from the International Labour Organization.</p>
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<p>For more information follow <a class="external-link" href="https://digitalfuturesociety.com/agenda/global-perspectives-on-women-work-and-digital-labour-platforms/">this link</a>.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/global-perspectives-on-women-work-and-digital-labour-platforms'>https://cis-india.org/raw/global-perspectives-on-women-work-and-digital-labour-platforms</a>
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No publisherAdminLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-04T04:43:13ZNews ItemGender and collective bargaining in the platform economy: Experiences of on-demand beauty workers in India
https://cis-india.org/raw/gender-and-collective-bargaining-in-the-platform-economy
<b>Abhishek Sekharan, Chiara Furtado, and Ambika Tandon contributed an essay on gender and collective bargaining in the platform economy in India, reflecting on the experiences of women beauty workers who organised India’s first women-led movement of platform workers. The essay has been published as part of an online collection of essays from contributors across the world and has been curated by the Digital Future Society Think Tank (Barcelona, Spain).</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In October 2021, women beauty workers from Urban Company (UC), India’s premier platform providing at-home personal services, organised outside their head office in Gurugram to protest their unfair working conditions and lack of social security. Among their demands were the need to reduce and stabilise exorbitant platform commissions, remove arbitrary workforce management practices, reinstate control over working hours, and develop effective grievance redressal and support helplines to aid workers’ safety.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was a first-of-its-kind resistance led by women workers in India’s booming platform economy. Many of the demands put forth by these workers are reflective of issues that commonly impact women’s labour force participation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Women face considerable entry barriers in the platform economy, which is reflected in their low participation in ride-hailing and delivery — sectors that engage a majority of the gig workforce (ILO 2021). Instead, women are predominantly employed in historically feminised sectors such as domestic work, healthcare services, beauty work, and online tutoring.</p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; ">Click here to read the <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/global-persectives-on-women-work-and-digital-platforms" class="internal-link">full essay</a>.</p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/gender-and-collective-bargaining-in-the-platform-economy'>https://cis-india.org/raw/gender-and-collective-bargaining-in-the-platform-economy</a>
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No publisherAbhishek Sekharan, Chiara Furtado and Ambika TandonLabour FuturesResearchers at Work2023-07-03T16:40:58ZBlog Entry