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Your economy, our livelihoods: A policy brief by the All India Gig Workers’ Union
https://cis-india.org/raw/your-econonomy-our-livelihoods-a-policy-brief-by-the-all-india-gigi-workers-union
<b>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.
</b>
<p><span style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/your-economy-our-livelihoods.pdf">Click to download</a> the full report</span></p>
<hr />
<h3>Alternative recommendations towards rights-affirming futures for workers in the platform economy</h3>
<p><strong>Regulating the unchecked rise of platforms and the platform workforce</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">The rise of platforms will not only affect workers in blue collar or grey collar jobs but also engulf other service sectors that currently provide permanent and dignified employment. The platform and gig work paradigm must not be used as a way to further deregulate the Indian economy by subterfuge.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Robust regulatory mechanisms and worker protections must be extended to the gig economy and other forms of perennial employment threatened by the new Central labour codes. Gig workers must be recognised as employees with a clear test of employment enshrined in law.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A stronger push towards better paradigms of work can only come from alternative models of platform work. It is essential that the government foster the creation of platform cooperatives in certain service sectors. Such platform cooperatives will mitigate market concentration that results from the network effects of large private platforms, offer greater stability than profit-oriented private platforms, and offer genuine pro-people alternatives.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Securing data rights and employment security</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Gig workers must be guaranteed individual and collective rights to their data collected and stored by platforms. Workers’ data should belong to the workers. Workers should be able to access verified records of their training (if any) and work contributions. The government should prescribe standards to ensure that these records are machine-readable and universally inter-operable. In addition, workers must have easy access to verified receipts for each successful task performed on the platform.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Centering gender-responsive protections for workers facing intersectional vulnerabilities</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Platform work is uncritically accepted as a panacea for women without taking a deeper look at labour practices, and how women workers may be particularly vulnerable to workplace risks and exploitation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Considering these vulnerabilities, there must be legal and regulatory measures enabling women to participate in the gig economy more fully—for example, creches, sexual harassment prevention measures, equal wages, and proper hours and working conditions. Crucially, there should be safety provisions for all gig workers, especially for women who face greater dangers of harassment. Importantly, accessible and efficient enforcement mechanisms must be introduced to operationalise schemes and rights for women workers.</p>
<p><strong>Securing minimum social protection guarantees for all workers on digital platforms</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Effective minimum wages of INR 26,000 per month must be enforced as demanded by the Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions in India. This figure must be used to determine the minimum earnings for an hour’s worth of work on a platform.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Provision for Provident Fund (PF) must be introduced, and a bank account that does not require minimum balances or related charges must also be guaranteed. Social insurance measures must be guaranteed including health insurance, personal accident insurance, pension, maternity benefits, and disability benefits. In addition, the state government must consider waiving off charges relating to fuel surcharges and parking expenses/ penalties for gig workers, while on duty.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Security and safety for women workers must be addressed by issuing government ID cards for gig workers. Gig workers are required to travel to unknown localities, where residents tend to be suspicious of them. The government ID card will help workers establish their identity and increase their credibility among the residents.</p>
<p>Social security legislation and a tripartite board (with representation of workers and worker organisations, government, and platforms) must be constituted to ensure registration of all platform-based gig workers and facilitate their access to social security. The law should cover all those persons who are engaged in professions that are using digital platforms for their last mile delivery.</p>
<p><strong>Building accountability mechanisms for financial inclusion measures on platforms</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">While including gig workers into the formal banking system is essential, this must not be used as a pretext to ensnare them into debt traps. Should the government wish to use platforms as a lever for financial inclusion, it must mandate platforms to deposit a minimum amount above and beyond workers’ existing incomes towards their consumption. For platforms, existing schemes must be rejigged—Firstly, the burden of credit schemes must not be borne only by public sector banks; the private sector must also be directed to take on some of the lending. Secondly, interest rates may be lowered for such loans, but this reduced rate must be made conditional on ensuring a certain threshold of working conditions to gig workers.</p>
<p><strong>Developing workforce estimation strategies that reflect workers’ realities</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Workers in the gig economy must not blindly be lumped with the unorganised sector without an understanding of nuances within the broad definition of the gig economy. Assumptions that workers in the gig economy have alternate sources of income must be refuted. Rather, in the case of gig workers in the Indian context, ground realities show that this work actually constitutes primary sources of income.</p>
<p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Primary data must be collected across the country where platform work is seen as a clear option for individuals to choose as a profession. Thus, one can estimate the percentage of the population that depends on the gig economy in a consistent manner. Digital platforms must provide adequate data to state governments on the number of workers registered on the platform in every region (along with work time data) in order for governments to actively prepare for public infrastructure requirements required for such employment generation.</p>
<hr />
<h3 dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify; ">Contributors</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Authors: W.C. Shukla, Rikta Krishnaswamy, Rohin Garg, Gunjan Jena, and S.B. Natarajan</p>
<p dir="ltr">Images: All India Gig Workers’ Union (AIGWU)</p>
<p dir="ltr">Design: Annushka Jaliwala</p>
<h3>About the All India Gig Workers’ Union (AIGWU)</h3>
<p dir="ltr">The All India Gig Workers’ Union (AIGWU) is a registered trade union for all food delivery, logistics, and service workers that work on any app-based platforms in India.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Contact: <a href="mailto:contactaigwu@gmail.com">contactaigwu@gmail.com</a></p>
<p>Connect: <a href="https://twitter.com/aigwu_union">Twitter</a>; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/aigwu">Facebook</a></p>
<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>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/your-econonomy-our-livelihoods-a-policy-brief-by-the-all-india-gigi-workers-union'>https://cis-india.org/raw/your-econonomy-our-livelihoods-a-policy-brief-by-the-all-india-gigi-workers-union</a>
</p>
No publisherW.C. Shukla, Rikta Krishnaswamy, Rohin Garg, Gunjan Jena, and S.B. NatarajanLabour FuturesDigital EconomyGig WorkDigital LabourReserve Bank of IndiaFeaturedHomepage2024-01-31T00:02:12ZBlog 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>
<hr />
<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>
<hr />
<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>
<p>
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 EntryDatafication of the Public Distribution System in India
https://cis-india.org/raw/datafication-of-the-public-distribution-system-in-india
<b>In this study, we look into the datafication of social protection schemes with a special focus on the Public Distribution System in India. Proponents of datafication claim that the benefits will reach the right person and curb leakages through the automation and digitisation of all PDS processes. Aadhaar is the most important link in the datafication; supporters claim that it makes technology people-centric. This study looks at the status of PDS datafication and its impact on the delivery of the scheme in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. We also try to understand to what extent the stated objective of portability has been met and how far the challenges faced by the rights holders of the PDS have been resolved. </b>
<p>Read the full report <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/datafication-of-the-public-distribution-system-in-india-pdf" class="internal-link">here</a>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/datafication-of-the-public-distribution-system-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/raw/datafication-of-the-public-distribution-system-in-india</a>
</p>
No publisherSameet PandaRAW ResearchFeaturedResearchers at WorkRAW Blog2024-02-12T12:07:40ZBlog EntryMaking Voices Heard
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/making-voices-heard
<b>We are happy to announce the launch of our final report on the study ‘Making Voices Heard: Privacy, Inclusivity, and Accessibility of Voice Interfaces in India. The study was undertaken with support from the Mozilla Corporation.</b>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/WebsiteHeader.jpg/@@images/8d8ed2a0-f0e4-44d7-8938-493b186402c5.jpeg" alt="Making Voices Heard" class="image-inline" title="Making Voices Heard" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We believe that voice interfaces have the potential to democratise the use of the internet by addressing limitations related to reading and writing on digital text-only platforms and devices. This report examines the current landscape of voice interfaces in India, with a focus on concerns related to privacy and data protection, linguistic barriers, and accessibility for persons with disabilities (PwDs).</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The report features a visual mapping of 23 voice interfaces and technologies publicly available in India, along with a literature survey, a policy brief towards development and use of voice interfaces and a design brief documenting best practices and users’ needs, both with a focus on privacy, languages, and accessibility considerations, and a set of case studies on three voice technology platforms. <span>Read and download the full report <a class="external-link" href="http://voice.cis-india.org/">here</a></span></p>
<hr />
<h3>Credits</h3>
<p><strong>Research</strong>: Shweta Mohandas, Saumyaa Naidu, Deepika Nandagudi Srinivasa, Divya Pinheiro, and Sweta Bisht.</p>
<p><strong>Conceptualisation, Planning, and Research Inputs</strong>: Sumandro Chattapadhyay, and Puthiya Purayil Sneha.</p>
<p><strong>Illustration</strong>: Kruthika NS (Instagram @theworkplacedoodler). Website Design Saumyaa Naidu. Website Development Sumandro Chattapadhyay, and Pranav M Bidare.</p>
<p><strong>Review and Editing</strong>: Puthiya Purayil Sneha, Divyank Katira, Pranav M Bidare, Torsha Sarkar, Pallavi Bedi, and Divya Pinheiro.</p>
<p><strong>Copy Editing</strong>: The Clean Copy</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/making-voices-heard'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/making-voices-heard</a>
</p>
No publishershwetaVoice User InterfacePrivacyAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchFeaturedHomepage2022-06-27T16:18:36ZBlog EntryInternet Researchers' Conference 2022 (IRC22): #Home, May 25-27
https://cis-india.org/raw/irc-22-home
<b>We are excited to announce that the fifth edition of the Internet Researchers' Conference will be held online on May 25-27, 2022.This annual conference series was initiated by the researchers@work (r@w) programme at CIS in 2016 to gather researchers and practitioners engaging with the internet in/from India to congregate, share insights and tensions, and chart the ways forward. This year, the conference brings together a set of reflections and conversations on how we imagine and experience the home —as a space of refuge and comfort, but also as one of violence, care, labour and movement-building.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Venue: Online on Zoom</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Registration: <a class="external-link" href="https://tinyurl.com/reg-irc22">https://tinyurl.com/reg-irc22</a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Code of Conduct:<a href="https://cis-india.org/IRC22_CoCFSP" class="external-link"> Download (PDF)</a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conference Programme: <a href="https://cis-india.org/IRC22.Programme.Final%20" class="external-link">Download (PDF)</a></strong></p>
<hr />
<p> </p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_IRCPoster2.jpg/@@images/fa92d73e-af12-492b-b55c-f06e7a661415.jpeg" alt="null" class="image-inline" title="IRC Poster 2" /></p>
<p dir="ltr">The ‘home’ has been a key line of defence in efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Public health recommendations and governmental measures have enforced numerous restrictions on daily living, including physical distancing and isolation, home confinement, and quarantining. These mandates to be at home have relied on the construction, and assumption, of home as a familiar, stable and safe space.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">However, home has always been a site of intense political contestation—be it through the temporal frames of belonging, ideas of citizenship and regionalism, role in the reproduction of capital accumulation, or as material signifiers of social status. Over the past 2 years, digital infrastructures have played an intensified role in the meaning making of the home. Coming to terms with the pandemic entailed an accelerated embedding of digital systems in many of our relationships. Be it with the state, educational institutions, workplaces, or each other. Solutions to the many challenges of infrastructure and mobility emerging over the last year have been sought in digital technologies. The digital mediation of the pandemic has ushered in visions of the ‘new normal’ as situated wholly in the digital.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">While the initial anxieties of living through the pandemic may have now eased, and we make forays into a changed world, the spectre of the ‘next normal’ awaits. As we continue to come to terms with, and find ways to reorient the disruption of life, being at home has acquired many new meanings. What has it meant to be at home, and what is home? What is and has been the role of the internet and digital media technologies in navigating the contours of a changing ‘normal’? How have/can digital technologies help overcome, or exacerbate existing social, economic and political challenges during the pandemic? What forms of digital infrastructure—tools, platforms, devices and services—help build, sustain and alter the notion of home?</p>
<p dir="ltr">For IRC22, we invited sessions across a range of formats and themes to explore and challenge conceptions of the home. Different people imagine and experience the home in various ways—as a space of refuge and comfort, but also as one of violence, care, labour and/or movement-building. We invited contributions that speak to these provocations through one or more of the above thematic areas. A set of 12 sessions were finalised for the conference (including 4 individual presentations), based on peer selection by teams and presenters who proposed sessions as well as an external review.</p>
<h3 dir="ltr"></h3>
<h3><strong>Sessions</strong></h3>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-waitingforfood">#WaitingForFood</a> - Rhea Bose and Nisha Subramanian</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-thismightnotbeonline">#thismightnotbeonline</a> - Kaushal Sapre and Aasma Tulika</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identitiesvulnerabilitiesopportunitiesdissentir">#IdentitesVulnerabilitiesOpportunitiesDissent</a> - Saumya Tewari, Manisha Madhava, Dhrupadi Chattopadhyay and Aparna Bose</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-homeandtheinternet">#HomeAndTheInternet</a> - Dona Biswas, Bhanu Priya Gupta and Ekta Kailash Sonwane </p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-letsmovein">#LetsMoveIn</a> - Arathy Salimkumar, Faheem Muhammed, Hazeena T and Manisha Madapathy</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-lockdownsandshutdowns">#LockdownsAndShutdowns</a> - Michael Collyer, Joss Wright, Andreas Tsamados, Marianne Díaz Hernández and Nathan Dobson</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-identifyingtheideaoflabourinteaching">#IdentifyingtheIdeaoflLaborinTeaching</a> - Sunanda Kar and Bishal Sinha</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-homebasedflexiworkincovid19">#HomeBasedFlexiworkInCovid19</a> - Sabina Dewan, Mukta Naik, Ayesha Zainudeen, Gayani Hurulle, Hue-Tam Jamme and Devesh Taneja</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-involutejaggedseamsofthedomesticandthevocational">#Involute:Jagged Seams of the Domestic and the Vocational -</a> Akriti Rastogi, Deepak Prince, Misbah Rashid and Satish Kumar</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-digitisingcrisesremakinghome">#DigitisingCrisesRemakingHome</a> - Vidya Subramanian, Kalindi Kokal and Uttara Purandare</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong><br /></strong></p>
<h3><strong>Individual Presentations</strong></h3>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-goinghomeconstructionofadigitalurbanplatforminterfaceindelhincr">#GoingHome: Constructions of a Digital-Urban Platform Interface in Delhi-NCR</a> - Anurag Mazumdar</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-socialmediaactivism">#SocialMediaActivism</a> - Anushka Bhilwar</p>
<p><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-proposed-session-transactandwhatfollowed">#TransActandWhatFollowed</a> - Brindaalakshmi K</p>
<h3><strong>About the IRC Series</strong></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">Researchers and practitioners across the domains of arts, humanities, and social sciences have attempted to understand life on the internet, or life after the internet, and the way digital technologies mediate various aspects of our being today. These attempts have in turn raised new questions around understanding of digital objects, online lives, and virtual networks, and have contributed to complicating disciplinary assumptions, methods, conceptualisations, and boundaries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The researchers@work programme at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) initiated the Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC) series to address these concerns, and to create an annual temporary space in India, for internet researchers to gather and share experiences.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The IRC series is driven by the following interests:</p>
<ul>
<li>creating discussion spaces for researchers and practitioners studying internet in India and in other comparable regions,</li>
<li>foregrounding the multiplicity, hierarchies, tensions, and urgencies of the digital sites and users in India,</li>
<li>accounting for the various layers, conceptual and material, of experiences and usages of internet and networked digital media in India, and</li>
<li>exploring and practicing new modes of research and documentation necessitated by new (digital) objects of power/knowledge.</li></ul>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-e32d113c-7fff-b48f-7af4-0a47077cf4a6"> </span></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;" dir="ltr">The<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc16"> first edition of the Internet Researchers' Conference</a> series was held in February 2016. It was hosted by the<a href="https://www.jnu.ac.in/SSS/CPS/"> Centre for Political Studies</a> at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and was supported by the CSCS Digital Innovation Fund. The<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc17"> second Internet Researchers' Conference</a> was organised in partnership with the<a href="http://citapp.iiitb.ac.in/"> Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy</a> (CITAPP) at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) campus on March 03-05, 2017. The<a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc18"> third Internet Researchers' Conference</a> was organised at the<a href="http://www.sambhaavnaa.org/"> Sambhaavnaa Institute</a>, Kandbari (Himachal Pradesh) during February 22-24, 2018, and the theme of the conference was *offline*. The<a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc19-list"> fourth Internet Researcher's Conference </a>was held at <a class="external-link" href="https://digital.lamakaan.com/">Lamakaan, Hyderabad</a> from January 30 - February 01, on the theme of the 'list'.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/irc-22-home'>https://cis-india.org/raw/irc-22-home</a>
</p>
No publisherPuthiya Purayil SnehaResearchers at WorkInternet Researcher's ConferenceFeaturedIRC22HomepageInternet Studies2022-05-24T14:38:57ZBlog EntryThe State of the Internet's Languages Report
https://cis-india.org/raw/state-of-the-internet-languages-report-2022
<b>The first-ever State of the Internet’s Languages Report was launched by Whose Knowledge? on February 23, 2022 (just after the International Mother Language day), along with research partners Oxford Internet Institute and the Centre for Internet and Society. This extraordinarily community-sourced effort, with over 100 people involved is now available online, with translations in multiple languages. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There are over 7000 (spoken and signed) languages in the world, but only a few can be fully experienced online. Challenges in accessing the internet and digital technologies in our preferred languages also means that a vast body of knowledge, especially from and by marginalised communities, is not represented and remains inaccessible to the world, thereby reiterating existing social inequalities. The State of the Internet's Languages report explores these and many other aspects related to ongoing efforts in creating a multilingual and multi-modal internet. Comprising both numbers and stories, the report features contributions in 13 languages, representing 22 language communities from 12 countries, and explores how communities across the world experience the internet.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify;">Read the full report <strong><a class="external-link" href="https://internetlanguages.org/en/">here</a>. </strong>See more details of the project<strong> <a class="external-link" href="https://whoseknowledge.org/initiatives/state-of-the-internets-languages/">here</a></strong></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/state-of-the-internet-languages-report-2022'>https://cis-india.org/raw/state-of-the-internet-languages-report-2022</a>
</p>
No publisherPuthiya Purayil SnehaRAW ResearchFeaturedResearchers at WorkRAW Blog2022-03-07T15:01:11ZBlog EntryInternet Researchers' Conference 2022
https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022
<b>Due to internal delays related to the pandemic, the Internet Researchers' Conference will now take place online in May 2022. Please see below for a link to the updated call for sessions.</b>
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<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22poster.jpg/" alt="null" width="100%" /></p>
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<h2 id="docs-internal-guid-6b2cca91-7fff-8d10-8f96-da4506b6b1fb" dir="ltr">IRC22</h2>
<h2 dir="ltr">#Home</h2>
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<div>The ‘home’ has been a key line of defence in efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Public health recommendations and governmental measures have enforced numerous restrictions on daily living, including physical distancing and isolation, home confinement, and quarantining. These mandates to be at home have relied on the construction, and assumption, of home as a familiar, stable and safe space.</div>
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<p dir="ltr">However, home has always been a site of intense political contestation—be it through the temporal frames of belonging, ideas of citizenship and regionalism, role in the reproduction of capital accumulation, or as material signifiers of social status. Over the past 2 years, digital infrastructures have played an intensified role in the meaning making of the home. Coming to terms with the pandemic entailed an accelerated embedding of digital systems in many of our relationships. Be it with the state, educational institutions, workplaces, or each other. Solutions to the many challenges of infrastructure and mobility emerging over the last year have been sought in digital technologies. The digital mediation of the pandemic has ushered in visions of the ‘new normal’ as situated wholly in the digital.</p>
<div>While the initial anxieties of living through the pandemic may have now eased, and we make forays into a changed world, the spectre of the ‘next normal’ awaits. As we continue to come to terms with, and find ways to reorient the disruption of life, being at home has acquired many new meanings. What has it meant to be at home, and what is home? What is and has been the role of the internet and digital media technologies in navigating the contours of a changing ‘normal’? How have/can digital technologies help overcome, or exacerbate existing social, economic and political challenges during the pandemic? What forms of digital infrastructure—tools, platforms, devices and services—help build, sustain and alter the notion of home?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>For IRC22, we invite you to pause and reflect on the relational and material linkages between being at home and being connected. We invite sessions across a range of formats and themes to explore and challenge conceptions of the home. Different people imagine and experience the home in various ways—as a space of refuge and comfort, but also as one of violence, care, labour or movement-building. We invite contributions that speak to these provocations through one or more of the above thematic areas.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><strong>Read the complete call for sessions, including sub-themes, session formats and timeline <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc22-call-for-sessions-pdf" class="internal-link" title="IRC22 Call for Sessions pdf">here</a>. <br /></strong></div>
<div><strong><br /></strong></div>
<p dir="ltr">To propose a session, please send the following documents (as attached text files; the file name should include the session title and your name) to <strong>workshops@cis-india.org</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Session Title: The session should be named in the form of a hashtag (check the <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/irc19-list">sessions proposed for IRC19</a> for example).</p>
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<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Session Type: Please select the session type among the four types mentioned in the call for sessions.</p>
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<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Session Plan: This should describe the objectives of the session (the motivations and expectations driving it), what will be done and discussed during the session, and who among the people organising the session will be responsible for what. This note need not be more than 500 words long. If your session involves inviting others to present their work (say papers), then please provide a description and timeline of the process through which these people will be identified.</p>
</li>
<li style="list-style-type: disc;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Session Team Details: Please share brief biographical notes of each lead of the session team, and their email addresses.</p>
</li></ul>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>The deadline for submission of session proposals is 9 March, 2022.</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022'>https://cis-india.org/raw/internet-researchers-conference-2022</a>
</p>
No publisherpranavFeaturedHomepage2022-02-11T09:54:09ZBlog EntryPlatforms, Power, and Politics: Perspectives from Domestic and Care Work in India
https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-perspectives-from-domestic-and-care-work-in-india
<b>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.
</b>
<p><span>The Executive Summary for the project report is below.</span></p>
<p>The full report, ‘Platforms, power, and politics: Perspectives from domestic and care work in India’, can be found <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-pdf" class="external-link">here</a>.</p>
<p>The press release can be found <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-press-release-pdf" class="external-link">here</a>.</p>
<hr />
<h3></h3>
<h3><span>Introduction</span></h3>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Paid domestic and care work is witnessing the entry of digital intermediaries over the past decade. More recently, there has been tremendous growth of digital platforms. This holds the potential to impact millions of workers in the sector, which is characterised by a long history of informality and exclusion from rights-according legal frameworks. Digital intermediation of domestic and care work has been a space of high-growth, but also high-attrition. In India, order books of digital platforms providing domestic and care work services were reported to have been growing by upto 60 percent month-on-month in 2016. This is expected to shift the organisation of workers and employment relations profoundly. <br /><br />Broadly, the discourse on digital platforms providing home-based services can be summarised as follows: proponents argue that digitisation will act as a step towards bringing formalisation to the sector, while critics argue that platforms could replicate the exploitation of workers by further disguising the employer-employee relationship. Similar debates around lack of protections and precarity have also taken place in other occupations in gig work such as transportation and food delivery. In fact, the similarity in precarity and the informal nature of this relationship across gig work and domestic work has led to domestic workers being labelled the original gig workers. Domestic work is a particularly vulnerable and unprotected sector, which makes work in the sector qualitatively different from most other sectors in the gig or sharing economy.<br /><br />Through a feminist approach to digital labour, our project aimed to examine the dynamics of platformisation in, and of domestic or reproductive care work. Our hypothesis was that platforms are reconfiguring labour conditions, which could empower and/or exploit workers in ways qualitatively different from non-standard work off the platform. In order to interrogate this further, we studied several aspects of the work relationship, including wages, conditions of work, social security, skill levels, and worker surveillance off platforms.</p>
<h3>Methodology</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We borrowed from ethnographic methods and feminist principles to co-design and implement the research tools with grassroots workers and organisers. Between June to November 2019, we conducted 65 in-depth semi-structured interviews primarily in New Delhi and Bengaluru. A majority of these were with domestic workers who were seeking or had found work through platforms. We also did interviews with workers who had found work through traditional placement agencies to compare our findings, and with representatives from platforms, government labour departments, and workers collectives. Of the workers we interviewed, a majority were women, but men were included as well. Interviews in New Delhi were undertaken by CIS, while interviews with workers in Bengaluru were undertaken by grassroots activists in Bengaluru, affiliated with the Domestic Workers Rights Union (DWRU).</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In implementing the data collection approach, we employed feminist methodological principles of intersectionality, self-reflexivity, and participation. The methodology draws on standpoint theory, which encourages knowledge production that centres the lived experiences of marginalised groups. We were acutely aware of our own positionality as high income, Savarna researchers studying a sector dominated by Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi women from low income groups. This power differential was softened partially by involving DWRU through the course of the project. Workers across both field sites were also interviewed in spaces familiar to them, most often their homes, in languages that they were comfortable with including Hindi, Kannada, and Tamil.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Feminist principles also instrumental during the data analysis, with focus on intersectionality and self-reflexivity. We highlighted the ways in which inequalities of gender, income, migration status, caste, and religion are replicated and amplified in the platform economy. In particular, we discussed the impact of the digital gender gap in access and skills on workers’ ability to find economic opportunities.</p>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Findings</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Our typology of platforms mediating domestic work finds three types of platforms – (i) marketplace, or platforms that list workers’ data on their profile, provide certain filters for automated selection of a pool of workers, and charge a fee from customers for access to workers’ contact details, (ii) digital placement agency, or platforms that provide an end-to-end placement service to customers, identify appropriate workers on the basis of selection criteria, and negotiate conditions of work on behalf of workers, and (iii) on-demand platforms, or companies that provide services or ‘gigs’ such as cleaning on an hourly basis, performed by a roster of workers who are characterised as ‘independent contractors’.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">When it comes to the role played by platforms in determining employment relations, there is a wide variation within and across platform categories. There are both weak and strong models of intervention. On one end of the spectrum are marketplaces, with minimal intervention in the recruitment process, and on the other on-demand platforms, that exact control over each aspect of work. Digital platforms reconfigure the conception of intermediaries in the domestic work sector, functioning as next-generation placement agencies. All three platform types contain aspects that provide workers agency, as well as those that reinforce their positions of low-power. Platform design impacts the role platforms play in setting conditions of work, but does not determine it entirely.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>(Re)shaping the terms of work</strong><br />Across the three types of platforms, wages are slightly higher than or matching those of workers off platforms. Some marketplace platforms have incorporated features to nudge customers towards setting higher wages, such as enforcing minimum wage standards, or informing customers of expected wages in their locality. Conversely, on-demand platforms charge a high rate of commission from workers, despite refusing to recognise them as employees. This indicates that this is a misclassification of an employment relationship, given that workers are unable to set their own conditions or wages for work. Despite the high rates of commission and appropriation of labour by platforms, on-demand workers earn higher wages than workers on other platforms. The relatively high wage is a result of marketing on-demand cleaning as professionalised and more skilled than day-to-day cleaning. Tasks in the sector continue to be distributed along the lines of gender and caste, as has historically been the case. Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi women are more likely to take up work such as cleaning and washing dishes, while men and women across castes are equally distributed in cooking work. Women dominate tasks such as elderly and childcare, as in the traditional economy. Workers in professionalised tasks such as deep cleaning that requires technical equipment and chemicals are almost entirely men.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Digital divides and workers’ agency</strong><br />We find that workers are primarily onboarded onto platforms by learning about it from other workers, through onboarding camps held by platforms, or offline advertising by platforms. Such in-person onboarding techniques allows workers with no digital access or literacy to register themselves on marketplace platforms and digital placement agencies.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, we find that low levels of education and digital literacy continue to impact platformed labour by creating a strong informational asymmetry between workers and platforms. For instance, we find that women workers from low income communities have very little information about how platforms work, causing deep distrust. Workers with digital devices and literacy (and therefore a relatively better understanding of the functionality of the platform), physical mobility and the resources to bear indirect costs that were outsourced to them were at a significant advantage in finding better-paying jobs. Workers who were seeking flexibility and were not necessarily dependent on the platform for their primary income were also better placed than those entirely dependent on platforms. Women workers tended to be disadvantaged on all these counts, limiting their agency and capacity to reap the benefits of the platform economy.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Across the three types of platforms, systems of placement and ratings add to the information asymmetry, as workers are not aware of the impact of ratings on their ability to find work or charge better wages. Ratings and filtering systems also hard-code the impact of workers’ social characteristics on their work. Workers are unable to exercise control over their data, further undermining their agency vis-a-vis platforms and employers. We identify a clear need for collective bargaining structures to protect workers’ rights, although platformed domestic workers remained distant from both domestic work unions and emergent unions of platform workers in other sectors.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Intersectionalities of formalisation</strong><br />We find that inequalities of caste, class, and gender that have historically shaped the sector continue to be replicated or even amplified in the platform economy. What remains clear is that platforms in the domestic work sector adopt the logics of this sector, more than the converse. Platformisation is conflated with formalisation, and it is within this vector, from complete informality to piecemeal formalisation, that platforms operate. Labour benefits do not take the form of labour protections or welfare entitlements that are the central function of formalisation processes. Instead, the so-called benefits are intended to transform domestic workers to participate within the logics and vagaries of the market.</p>
<h3>Policy Recommendations</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Recognise and implement labour protections for domestic workers </strong><br />Domestic workers have historically occupied the most vulnerable positions in the workforce, with limited legal protections. Exposed to the regulatory grey areas that platforms operate in, this doubly exposes domestic workers to precarious conditions of work. Despite an avowed move towards formalisation of domestic work, platform-mediated labour continues to retain characteristics of informal labour, even heightening some.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">If pushed to do so, platform companies can be instrumental in resolving some of the implementation challenges that governments have faced in enforcing legislative protections sought to be made available to domestic workers. Platforms have databases of workers, which can be used to mandatorily register them for social security schemes offered by the government. This data can also be used for better policy making, in the absence of reliable statistics particularly on migrant workers in the informal economy.<em><strong><br /></strong></em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Reduce the protective gap between employment and self-employment </strong><br />The (mis)classification of “gig” work within labour law frameworks is still a matter that continues to be hotly debated within policy practitioners, legal scholarship, and civil society actors. Three positions, in particular, have been taken—treating gig workers as employees, independent contractors, or occupying a third intermediate category. More recently, there have been some legal victories guaranteeing employment protections and increasing platform companies’ accountability. However, these successes have been more visible in Global North jurisdictions.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Regardless of the resolution of these ongoing debates over employment status, labour frameworks should provide some universal protections to all categories of labour. Such protections must include universal coverage of social security, in addition to rights such as freedom of association, collective bargaining, equal remuneration and anti-discrimination. Policies geared towards achieving this objective would be significant in reducing the protective gaps between different categories of labour, and would particularly help historical and emerging occupational categories of workers such as “gig” workers and domestic workers.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Recognise the specific challenge(s) and potential of platformisation of domestic work </strong><br />Platforms hold the potential of acting as effective facilitators in informal labour markets. Even when they do not replace existing recruitment pathways, they provide alternate ones. Workers were more likely to register on a platform if they were entering the domestic work labour market recently (often distress and migration driven), or had not enjoyed success with informal, word-of-mouth networks. However, platforms also heighten labour market insecurities, and create new ones. These potential risks need to be specifically recognised through appropriate frameworks, such as social security, discrimination law and data protection.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Tailor policy-making to platform models </strong><br />We identify three types of platforms, each of which intervene to varying degrees in the work relationship. We recommend that digital placement agencies and marketplace platforms be registered with governments and enforce basic protections for workers such as provision of minimum wage, preventing abuse (including non-payment of wages) and trafficking. On-demand companies on the other hand, must be treated as employers, and workers be accorded employment protections including social security.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In addition to rights-based policy actions, legal-regulatory mechanisms geared towards mitigating the precariousness of platform-based work are required. This can take the shape of clarifying and expanding existing legal-regulatory formulations, or preparing new ones. Such policy making should factor in the power and information asymmetry between domestic workers (and gig workers, generally) and platforms.</p>
<div></div>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Further, in the absence of health or retirement benefits, risks and indirect costs of operations are shifted from employers to workers. For instance, workers provide capital in the form of tools or equipment, support the fluctuation of business and income, and can be ‘deactivated’ from an application as a result of poor ratings or periods of inactivity. Any regulation aiming to extend employee status should mandate platforms to support such indirect costs.</p>
<h3>Related Publications</h3>
<p>1. <a class="external-link" href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/digital-mediation-of-reproductive-and-care-work">Research notes</a> with reflections from union members. <br />2. The <a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/platformisation-of-domestic-work-in-india-report-from-a-multistakeholder-consultation">event report</a> from a stakeholder consultation with workers, unions, companies and government representatives. <br />3. A <a class="external-link" href="https://www.genderit.org/articles/doing-standpoint-theory">reflection note</a> on the participatory approach taken by the project. <br />4. A <a class="external-link" href="https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/singapur/17840.pdf">paper</a> with a comparative analysis of the policy landscape on domestic work in the platform economy.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-perspectives-from-domestic-and-care-work-in-india'>https://cis-india.org/raw/platforms-power-and-politics-perspectives-from-domestic-and-care-work-in-india</a>
</p>
No publisherAayush Rathi, and Ambika TandonDigital EconomyResearchers at WorkPlatform-WorkFeaturedRAW ResearchHomepageDigital Domestic Work2021-07-07T15:19:37ZBlog EntryIFAT and ITF - Protecting Workers in the Digital Platform Economy: Investigating Ola and Uber Drivers’ Occupational Health and Safety
https://cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety
<b>Between July to November 2019, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), New Delhi office, conducted 2,128 surveys across 6 major cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Lucknow, to determine the occupational health and safety of app-based transport workers. CIS is proud to publish the study report and the press release. Akash Sheshadri, Ambika Tandon, and Aayush Rathi of CIS supported post-production of this report.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Report: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety-report/" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Press Release: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety-press-release" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<hr />
<h3>Press Release, August 25, 2020</h3>
<p><br />Between July to November 2019, IFAT and ITF conducted 2,128 surveys across 6 major cities: Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Lucknow, to determine the occupational health and safety of app-based transport workers.</p>
<p>Some of the most startling findings from the survey are below:</p>
<ul>
<li>There is a complete absence of social security and protection—a glaring 95.3% claimed to have no form of insurance, accidental, health or medical. This reflects the inability of workers to invest in their own health. This partly is a result of declining wages—after paying off their EMIs, penalties and commission to the companies and having less than Rs. 20,000 left at the end of the month.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Only 0.15% of the respondents reported to have access to accidental insurance, which is the bare minimum companies like Ola and Uber should have provided to their drivers.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Uber and Ola provide no assistance with regard to harassment and violence while drivers are on the road. Ola or Uber for the most part do not intervene if there is any intimidation from traffic police or local authorities, incidents of road rage, violent attack by customers or criminal elements that endanger drivers’ lives, accidents while driving etc.<br /><br /></li>
<li>On average drivers spend close to 16-20 hours in their cars in a day. 39.8% of the respondents spent close to 20 hours in their vehicle in a day, and 72.8% of the respondents from Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad drive for close to 20 hours a day. Due to long hours, 89.8% of the respondents claim they get less than 6 hours of sleep.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Health issues arising directly as a result of conditions of work is affecting the day-to-day lives of workers. Backache, constipation, liver issues, waist pain and neck pain are the top five health ailments that app-based transport workers suffer from due to their work. 60.7% respondents identified backache as a major health issue.</li>
</ul>
<p>App-based drivers/driver partners work in a very toxic and isolated work environment. Drivers can’t exit their current occupational status even if they want to because they are shackled in debts and outstanding EMIs. As a result, they race every day to complete targets so that they may earn just enough to pay these liabilities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The work these drivers are engaged in cannot be considered to be within the ambit of decent work and in reality, is representative of modern slavery. The algorithm of the companies they work for, pits them against their peers in order to maximize profit, while at the same time denying them social security or protection and essentially refusing to acknowledge them as employees.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Drivers working in various cities and working for different app-based platforms have complained about the lack of transparency in how these app-based companies determine fares, promotional cost, surge pricing, incentives, penalties and bonuses. There is little to no information on how rides are being fixed or are being allocated. There also isn't any effective grievance redressal mechanism to resolve any of the issues faced by workers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The apathy of the state and the exploitation by app-based companies have brought the transport and delivery workers in a precipitous position across the globe. This is underlined and explained by the absence and lack of any social security or protection for the workforce, there are some other issues that the workforce is battling during the Covid-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>Hear our voices and address our demands.</p>
<p>- <em>Shaik Salauddin</em></p>
<p>National General Secretary, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT)<br /> Phone: +91 96424 24799</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers</strong><br /> Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/connectifat/" target="_blank">connectifat</a><br /> Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/connect_ifat" target="_blank">@connect_ifat</a><br /> YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA1AxGq0Fb_A_O_Ey44eiPg" target="_blank">Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety'>https://cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-protecting-workers-in-digital-platform-economy-ola-uber-occupational-health-safety</a>
</p>
No publisherIndian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), New Delhi officeDigital EconomyResearchers at WorkDigital LabourCovid19ResearchPlatform-WorkFeaturedHomepage2021-06-29T06:53:47ZBlog EntryAtmanirbhar Bharat Meets Digital India: An Evaluation of COVID-19 Relief for Migrants
https://cis-india.org/raw/migrant-workers-solidarity-network-and-cis-ankan-barman-atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india-an-evaluation-of-covid-19-relief-for-migrants
<b>With the onset of the national lockdown on 24th March 2020 in response to the outbreak of COVID-19, the fate of millions of migrant workers was left uncertain. In addition, lack of enumeration and registration of migrant workers became a major obstacle for all State Governments and the Central Government to channelize relief and welfare measures.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A majority of workers were dependent on relief provided by NGOs, Civil Society Organizations and individuals or credit via kinship networks. With mounting domestic and international pressures, various relief and welfare schemes were rolled out but they were too little, too late and more often than not characterised by poor implementation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The aim of this report is to qualitatively assess health conditions of migrant workers and access to welfare during the first COVID-19 lockdown. The primary focus is on the host states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Haryana. 20 in-depth interviews were conducted remotely with migrant workers working in various sectors. Their access to welfare schemes of the Central Government as well as of their host states was ascertained. Emphasis was also laid on their access to healthcare facilities in relation to COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 ailments.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The findings of the report showcase a dismal state of affairs. No one in our sample group received any kind of dry ration or cooked food in a sustained manner and, in the rare occasions when they did, it was woefully inadequate. Of the three states considered, we found that relief distribution was the best in Tamil Nadu followed by Maharashtra and then Haryana. Even the Direct Cash Transfer Scheme of the Central Government under ‘<i>Atmanirbhar Bharat</i>’ did not reach the migrant workers. Moreover, the migrant workers were apprehensive to report any COVID-19 related symptom due to the draconian treatment that followed therein and the crumbling healthcare sector made it impossible to avail facilities in non-COVID-19 related issues. Lastly, a case has been made for the creation of bottom-level infrastructures to further dialogue between various stakeholders, including associations of migrant workers, for the implementation of schemes and policies which can consolidate migrant workers as a relevant political subject. As migrant workers reel from the impact of the second wave, pushing for on-ground infrastructure and supporting community-based organisations becomes even more urgent.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a class="external-link" href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india.pdf">Click here to read the report</a> authored by Ankan Barman and edited by Ayush Rathi. [PDF, 882 kb]</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/migrant-workers-solidarity-network-and-cis-ankan-barman-atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india-an-evaluation-of-covid-19-relief-for-migrants'>https://cis-india.org/raw/migrant-workers-solidarity-network-and-cis-ankan-barman-atmanirbhar-bharat-meets-digital-india-an-evaluation-of-covid-19-relief-for-migrants</a>
</p>
No publisherankanRAW PublicationsResearchers at WorkCovid19FeaturedLabour FuturesAadhaarHomepage2021-06-03T12:53:57ZBlog EntrySameet Panda - Data Systems in Welfare: Impact of the JAM Trinity on Pension & PDS in Odisha during COVID-19
https://cis-india.org/raw/sameet-panda-jam-trinity-pension-pds-odisha-covid-19
<b>This study by Sameet Panda tries to understand the integration of data and digital systems in welfare delivery in Odisha. It brings out the impact of welfare digitalisation on beneficiaries through primary data collected in November 2020. The researcher is thankful to community members for sharing their lived experiences during course of the study. Fieldwork was undertaken in three panchayats of Bhawanipatna block of Kalahandi district, Odisha. Additional research support was provided by Apurv Vivek and Vipul Kumar, and editorial contributions were made by Ambika Tandon (Senior Researcher, CIS). This study was conducted as part of a project on gender, welfare, and surveillance, supported by Privacy International, UK.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Report: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/sameet-panda-impact-of-the-jam-trinity-on-pension-pds-in-odisha-during-covid-19" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<hr />
<h3>Extract from the Report</h3>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated flaws in social institutions as never before - threatening food security, public health systems, and livelihood in the informal sector. At the time of writing this report,
India is the second-worst affected country in the world with over 9.8 million confirmed cases and more than 1.4 hundred thousand deaths. Unemployment has been increasing at an alarming rate, from 6.67 to 7 percent in October...</p>
<p>Following the national lockdown, many families belonging to low-income groups and daily wage earners found themselves stranded without money, food or credit from their employers. During the strict lockdown of the economy between March to June 2020 lakhs of migrants faced starvation in cities and walked back home. The government responded with some urgent measures, although inadequate. To cope with the food and economic crisis the Government of India and state governments initiated several social protection schemes. In Odisha, The central government provided two kinds of support, cash transfer through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) MGNREGS, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUJ), advance release of pension in cash to existing beneficiaries and cash support of Rs. 1000. The Odisha government provided cash support of Rs. 1000
to ration card holding families. Beneficiaries of the Public Distribution System also received free-of-cost food grain under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana...</p>
<p>Over the last couple of years, along with making the Aadhaar mandatory, the government has also been working towards linking mobile numbers and bank accounts of beneficiaries. An increasing number of schemes are shifting to Direct Benefit Transfer from in-kind or cash benefits - 324 schemes under 51 ministries of the Government of India. Such schemes are relying on the linkage of Jan Dhan accounts, the Aadhaar, and mobile numbers (the “JAM trinity”) to facilitate access to Direct Benefit Transfers. The Economic Survey 2015-16 has pointed out that without improving mobile penetration and rural banking infrastructure making the JAM trinity mandatory would continue to lead to exclusions. The issues with each of the components of the JAM trinity worsened during the COVID-19 crisis with restrictions on physical movement, difficulties in topping up mobile phone accounts, and enrolling for the Aadhaar or addressing other technical issues.</p>
<p>This report assesses the role of the data system in welfare delivery. It focuses on the impact of the three components of the JAM trinity - Jan Dhan Account, mobile numbers and the Aadhaar on Direct Benefit Transfer, social security pension and the Public Distribution System. The objective of this study is to understand the challenges faced by beneficiaries in accessing PDS and pension as a result of digitisation processes. This includes failures in Direct Benefit Transfers and exclusions from databases, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study focuses on gender as a key component shaping the impact of digitisation on beneficiaries. The sample includes both men and women beneficiaries in order to identify such gendered differences. It will also identify infrastructural constraints in Odisha that impact the implementation of digital systems in welfare. Also, it will analyse policy frameworks at central and state levels, to compare their discourse with the impact on the ground.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/sameet-panda-jam-trinity-pension-pds-odisha-covid-19'>https://cis-india.org/raw/sameet-panda-jam-trinity-pension-pds-odisha-covid-19</a>
</p>
No publisherSameet PandaWelfare GovernanceData SystemsHomepageResearchFeaturedGender, Welfare, and PrivacyResearchers at Work2021-02-26T07:36:10ZBlog EntryReclaiming AI Futures: Call for Contributions and Provocations
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/reclaiming-ai-futures-call-for-contributions-and-provocations
<b>CIS is pleased to share this call for contributions by Mozilla Fellow Divij Joshi. CIS will be working with Divij to edit, collate, and finalise this publication. This publication will add to Divij’s work as part of the AI observatory. The work is entirely funded by Divij Joshi.</b>
<div> </div>
<div> </div>
<p id="docs-internal-guid-3165c9a9-7fff-9881-71cc-4b816e9c6877" dir="ltr"> </p>
<p> </p>
<p dir="ltr">Please visit this <a class="external-link" href="https://medium.com/@divij.joshi/reclaiming-ai-futures-call-for-contributions-and-provocations-ef6d75ce2a31">link</a> for the full call, and details on how to apply.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/reclaiming-ai-futures-call-for-contributions-and-provocations'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/reclaiming-ai-futures-call-for-contributions-and-provocations</a>
</p>
No publisherDivij JoshiFeaturedInternet Governance2020-11-18T09:04:25ZBlog EntryIFAT and ITF - Locking Down the Impact of Covid-19
https://cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-locking-down-the-impact-of-covid-19
<b>This report, by Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), New Delhi office, explores the responses to the outbreak of Covid-19 by digital platform based companies, trade unions, and governments to help out workers for digital platform based companies hereafter app based workers during the lockdown. The research work in this article is a characterization of the struggles of app based workers during the global pandemic and how it has affected and changed the world of work for them. The surveys were conducted amongst the workforce working for app based companies like Ola, Uber, Swiggy, Zomato etc. This study is partially supported by CIS as part of the Feminist Internet Research Network led by the Association for Progressive Communications.</b>
<p> </p>
<h4>Report: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/ifat-itf-locking-down-the-impact-of-covid-19-report/" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<h4>Press Release: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/files/ifat-itf-locking-down-the-impact-of-covid-19-press-release/" target="_blank">Download</a> (PDF)</h4>
<hr />
<h3>Press Release, 17 September, 2020</h3>
<p><br />Between March and June 2020, IFAT and ITF conducted 4 surveys with transport and delivery workers to assess (i) their income levels during the Covid-19 pandemic, (ii) the burden of loan repayment during these months, (iii) the relief provided to them by companies, and (iv) the access to welfare schemes offered by state and central governments.</p>
<p>The first survey, on income levels and loans administered in March 2020, had 5964 respondents, across 55 cities, in 16 states. The second and third surveys conducted in April 2020, on financial relief from companies and governments, had 1630 respondents, across 59 cities, in 16 states. The fourth survey was conducted in June 2020 to assess income levels as the economies were slowing opening up. Some of the most startling findings from the 4 surveys are:</p>
<ul>
<li>The average monthly EMI of the respondents in March 2020 was between Rs. 10,000 - 20,000. 51% of the respondents had taken vehicle loans from 19 national public sector banks.<br /><br /></li>
<li>30.3% of the respondents worked between 40-50 hours a week, in the week prior to the first national lockdown. Despite high hours of work, the average income of the drivers for the week commencing April 15, 2020 was less than Rs. 2500. 57% of respondents earned between 0 to Rs. 2250.<br /><br /></li>
<li>89.8% of workers did not receive any ration or food assistance, and 84.5% did not receive any financial assistance from either companies or governments.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Where companies had announced financial assistance programmes, including through donations collected by customers, there was no transparency in disbursement of funds. Other reasons for exclusion included administrative red tape (such as the requirement to produce bills that are GST compliant), and absence of clear criteria for eligibility, leading to random disbursement, among others.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Ola announced waiving off the rental amount for leased vehicles, and asked drivers to return such vehicles. However, there was no announcement of a plan to repossess vehicles once there was an easing of the lockdown, causing great anxiety among workers.<br /><br /></li>
<li>After the easing of the national lockdown, 69.7% of respondents indicated that they had no earnings, while 20% earned between Rs.500 to 1500.<br /><br /></li>
<li>2716 respondents from 19 states across gig platforms articulated their support for a peaceful demonstration against company practices.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Mandatory installation of Aarogya Setu by workers raised concerns of privacy, as this would allow companies to surveil workers and collect data on their movements after work hours.</li>
</ul>
<p>IFAT organised several meetings and protests after each survey, to bring attention to the vulnerable conditions of workers. At these gatherings, workers raised the following key demands:</p>
<ul>
<li>Companies must reduce commission rates to 5%, to allow workers to get back on their feet, and compensate for losses over the past few months;<br /><br /></li>
<li>Adequate protective equipment and health insurance cover to all drivers must be provided;<br /><br /></li>
<li>There must be increased transparency in disbursement process of funds, and in the criteria for selection of beneficiaries;<br /><br /></li>
<li>Compounded interest must be waived on EMIs for the 3 months of moratorium on loan repayment.</li>
</ul>
<p>Hear our voices and address our demands.</p>
<p><br /><em>Shaik Salauddin</em></p>
<p>National General Secretary, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT)</p>
<p>Phone: +91 96424 24799</p>
<p><br /><strong>Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers</strong></p>
<p>Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/connectifat/" target="_blank">www.facebook.com/watch/connectifat/</a></p>
<p>Twitter: <a href="https://www.twitter.com/connect_ifat" target="_blank">www.twitter.com/connect_ifat</a></p>
<p>YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA1AxGq0Fb_A_O_Ey44eiPg" target="_blank">www.youtube.com/channel/UCA1AxGq0Fb_A_O_Ey44eiPg</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-locking-down-the-impact-of-covid-19'>https://cis-india.org/raw/ifat-itf-locking-down-the-impact-of-covid-19</a>
</p>
No publisherIndian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), New Delhi officeDigital EconomyResearchers at WorkDigital LabourCovid19ResearchPlatform-WorkFeaturedHomepage2021-06-29T07:27:09ZBlog EntryTowards Algorithmic Transparency
https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/towards-algorithmic-transparency
<b>This policy brief examines the issue of transparency as a key ethical component in the development, deployment, and use of Artificial Intelligence.</b>
<p> </p>
<p>This brief proposes a framework that seeks to overcome the challenges in preserving transparency when dealing with machine learning algorithms, and suggests solutions such as the incorporation of audits, and ex ante approaches to building interpretable models right from the design stage. Read the full report <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/algorithmic-transparency-pdf" class="internal-link" title="Algorithmic Transparency PDF">here</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Regulatory Practices Lab at CIS aims to produce regulatory policy
suggestions focused on India, but with global application, in an agile
and targeted manner and to promote transparency around practices
affecting digital rights. <br />The Regulatory Practices Lab is supported by Google and Facebook.<br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/towards-algorithmic-transparency'>https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/towards-algorithmic-transparency</a>
</p>
No publisherRadhika Radhakrishnan, and Amber SinhaRegulatory Practices LabInternet GovernanceFeaturedAlgorithmsinternet governanceTransparencyArtificial Intelligence2020-07-15T13:16:44ZBlog Entry