
There is an often-quoted old English saying whose origins are unclear: ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the man’: whenever the situation becomes dire, someone will emerge who will turn the tide.
In the waning hours of 2022, many of us will recall with gratitude one development that came as a life saver for us from the very first lockdown in 2020, right up to recent weeks: the nameless, often faceless delivery person who in multiple avatars brought goods and services to our doorstep, whatever the time or the inclement weather.
We know them as the Swiggy or Zomato guy who brought us hot food from a restaurant of our choice.
We know them as bigbasket or JioMart persons who delivered any item of toiletry or grocery within minutes of a sudden emergency
We know them as delivery execs from Amazon and Flipkart who brought everything from television sets to laptop computers or mobile phones to our doors, saving us costly trips to showrooms and malls.
And we know them most recently as the person from Dunzo or Porter who brought anything from anywhere from across town — even an urgent document or medicine from a pharmacy.
Often, we never even saw their faces: After Covid, contactless delivery kicked in and they left items on our doorstep, giving us no opportunity to even say a ‘thank you’!
We know them just by the agency they served; the app we used to whistle up their service. But the business world calls them ‘gig workers’ — persons who engage in income-earning activities outside of a traditional employer-employee relationship, as well as in the informal sector.
When gig workers use platforms — ie, websites or apps like Ola, Uber, Dunzo, Zomato, Swiggy or Urban Company — to connect with customers, they are called platform workers.
Read More at https://swarajyamag.com/economy/saluting-the-unheralded-heroes-of-the-pandemic-years-the-platform-gig-workers
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