Who’s paying the price for your 10-minute delivery?

Discourse around 10-minute delivery and the gig economy has been all the rage both on and off the internet recently. While the gig economy currently presents some vital employment opportunities in India, the question remains: Do we really need anything delivered in 10 minutes—except, perhaps, in medical emergencies?

Amidst growing resistance from the gig and platform worker community, in the background of calls for two nationwide strikes calling for a ban on ‘10 minute delivery’, questions are being raised about the “unethical practices” within the gig economy. 

Despite both the union and state government stepping in to organise the gig and platform workers sector, it continues to remain unorganised, leaving workers vulnerable to exploitation. 

The Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2025 has come into force with effect from 30 May 2025. Subsequently, the Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Rules, 2025, have been notified and made accessible to the public and came into effect from 19 November 2025.

A senior official from the Labour Department informed DH that details regarding the formulation of the Welfare Board and the percentage of welfare fee to be charged to aggregators will be presented to the state government on January 5, post which it will soon be notified, coming into effect. 

Pointing to some of the gaps within the law, Advocate KM Sai Apabharana said, “The law requires that 1% to 5% of the amount payable to a gig worker per transaction be deposited by the platform/aggregator into a welfare fund. This effectively reduces the amount the gig worker receives for each transaction completed. Although the worker would gain access to potential welfare benefits under various schemes, it remains unclear whether each worker would prefer such benefits over receiving the full payment directly. This is particularly significant given that the precise nature of, and benefits available under, all of the welfare schemes might not be fully known to the workers.”

To ensure a more well-rounded welfare scheme, Inayath Ali, president of Karnataka App-based Workers Union and national vice president of the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers Union, urged aggregator platforms to release comprehensive daily data. “The founder of Zomato proudly shared that his companies made 75 lakh deliveries on New Year’s Eve despite the strike. But when either our union or even the state government has asked them for daily data, they haven’t done it,” he said. 

In the interim, the Union Government recently published new draft rules under the Social Security Code 2020, proposing a 90-day work threshold as the mandatory eligibility criteria for gig and platform workers to access social security. If a worker uses multiple platforms, the mandatory threshold increases to 120 days. 

Why gig work?

Over the past two days, Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal has made multiple public statements claiming that 10-minute delivery does not put pressure on gig workers, sharing its pros.

Defending the gig economy, he said, “If a system were fundamentally unfair, it would not consistently attract and retain so many people who choose to work within it. Please don’t get swept up by narratives pushed by vested interests.” His take on the workings of the gig economy has drawn major backlash across the country.

In one of his posts on X, Goyal also urged people to ask gig workers why they choose the job. “If you’ve ever wanted to know why millions of Indians voluntarily take up platform work and sometimes even prefer it to regular jobs, JUST ASK any rider partner when you get your next food or grocery order,” he wrote.

DH posed the same question to about 20 gig workers in Bengaluru, spanning across platforms such as Swiggy, Blinkit, Zepto, Zomato, UrbanCompany, and Porter, and the responses unanimously pointed to “lack of better jobs”.

A majority of the workers associated the job with words such as ‘stress’, ‘shame’, ‘pressure’, and ‘penalty’. They also shared that their average daily pay for seven to 12 hours of work is between Rs 600 to Rs 1,300. This is before deductions such as cancellation penalty and fuel expense. 

Pappu Kumar, who has been working in the field for the past eight months, shared instances where his family has begged him to find a different job. “They are worried about me since I’m on the road all day. I tell them I drive safely, but I know how I drive when I’m in a rush to deliver an order. These apps promise 5-minute delivery, but fail to take into consideration the state of the city’s roads, lack of parking and other hurdles we face along the way. 

“No one wants to spend 10 hours driving in the Bengaluru traffic, only to earn less than Rs 1,000 at the end of the day. I tried for three years to get a clerical job, but when COVID hit, I had no other option but to resort to gig work. For one year, I earned decently as both Zomato and Swiggy offer incentives to new drivers. But soon enough, all incentives stopped. Now I’m not able to find any other job due to a lack of experience in other fields,” shared a 29-year-old gig worker on the accounts of anonymity. 

Sharath, another delivery agent, expressed his concern for the lack of dignity that Indians have towards gig workers. 

“We as a community don’t have respect for gig work. Every day, at least one or two customers will make us feel like untouchables — by refusing to take the order from our hands and asking us to leave it on the floor, or even refusing to provide water. My own family has respect for my job, but I have to stick with it because I have loans on my head,” he said. 

Calling out Goyal for his comments, Rakshita Swamy, member of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan and SAFAR, emphasised how ‘exploitative labour’ does not equal ‘providing opportunities’. 

“People are having to choose this work due to the state of our economy — look at the levels of unemployment and debt in the country. This is not the fault of the aggregators; it is a structural fault in our economy and the policies of our countries. And with the repeal of MNREGA, things are only going to get worse. But this does not mean aggregators use this as an opportunity to exploit labour. The space they are offering for gig workers must be within the letter of the law,” she said. 

Swiggy, Zomato and Zepto declined to comment on the Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Act, 2025, and its implementation.