MUMBAI: Lavkush Pandey is struggling to make a living – he earns barely US$200 a month delivering food and groceries for app-based platforms.
On top of that, like millions of fellow gig workers in India, he has no legal entitlement to employment benefits.
He hopes that will finally change under the sweeping labour reforms the government announced last month.
“What if we’re not there tomorrow, who would take care of our families? That’s the reason I ask that the laws the government has come up with benefit poor people like us,” he told CNA.
His predicament illustrates both the promise and uncertainty surrounding the country’s biggest overhaul of labour laws in decades.
The government’s four new labour codes aim to streamline more than 1,400 existing rules into about 350, as well as modernise regulations that date back to the colonial era.
The goal is to formalise India’s vast gig economy, strengthen wage protections, improve access to welfare and bring more women into the workforce.
But implementing these new laws could take months.
Many details, such as rules on minimum wages and easing restrictions on women who work night shifts or in certain factory roles, have not been finalised.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/india-labour-law-reforms-unions-businesses-workers-5569826
