The Indian government should create a centralised coordination authority between centre and state governments for the social protection of gig and platform workers in the country, reports Business Standard, citing a report, ‘Social Protection in India’s Platform Economy: Unpacking Supply Dynamics’ by the Ola Mobility Institute (OMI) Foundation. “Efficiently designing a social protection system that aligns with the needs of platform workers and the characteristics of the platform economy requires synchronised efforts,” the report stated. “Uncoordinated policymaking at central and state governments may not just result in duplication of efforts, but also suboptimal use of limited resources. Additionally, this may also unnecessarily increase the compliance burden for the platform businesses resulting in higher cost of services, increasing cost of job creation, and restricting innovation at scale.”

The report consulted with 10 platforms having nearly 4.5 million workers along with two workforce providing platforms. Furthermore, the report recommended that the government should build a social protection system that benefits the workers irrespective of their state identity because due to the low entry barriers, large market access and income security, the platform work is preferred by many migrant workers.