In a significant structural shift for the Indian labor market, the Economic Survey 2025–26 (tabled on January 29, 2026) revealed that India’s gig workforce has officially reached 12 million workers.
This represents a staggering 55% increase from 7.7 million in FY21, making the gig economy one of the fastest-growing employment sectors in the country.
1. The Drivers: Digital Infrastructure & Scale
The Survey attributes this “gig boom” to India’s robust digital public infrastructure, which has transitioned informal labor into organized, platform-integrated roles.
- Smartphone Penetration: Supported by over 80 crore (800 million) smartphone users.
- Digital Payments: Fueled by a record 15 billion UPI transactions per month in late 2025.
- Workforce Share: Gig workers now constitute over 2% of India’s total workforce, growing significantly faster than traditional salaried employment.
2. Sector-Wise Breakdown
E-commerce remains the dominant employer, but gig work is rapidly diversifying into high-skilled and industrial sectors.
| Sector | Gig Worker Count (Jan 2026) |
| E-commerce | 3.7 Million (Largest Share) |
| Logistics | 1.5 Million |
| BFSI (Banking & Finance) | 1.0 Million |
| Manufacturing | 1.0 Million |
| Healthcare | 0.3 Million |
3. The “Macro Gains vs. Micro Precarity” Paradox
Despite the scale, the Economic Survey issued a “yellow flag” regarding the financial health and working conditions of these workers:
- The Income Trap: Approximately 40% of gig workers earn below ₹15,000 per month, often due to unpredictable task availability.
- Algorithmic Bias: The report specifically flagged “algorithmic burnout,” noting that platform logic—not human managers—now controls wages and performance monitoring.
- Credit Gap: Due to “thin-file” financial histories and income volatility, gig workers still struggle to access formal bank loans or credit cards.
4. Proposed 2026 Policy Interventions
To bridge the gap between gig and regular employment, the Survey recommended several landmark reforms:
- Minimum Per-Task Pay: The government suggested setting minimum per-hour or per-task earnings, which would include compensation for “waiting time” (e.g., a delivery rider waiting for a restaurant order).
- Portable Social Security: Under the new Labour Codes 2026, the government is pushing for portable Provident Fund (PF) and insurance accounts that follow the worker across multiple platforms (Swiggy, Zepto, etc.).
- Threshold Removal: There is a proposal to remove the 90-day work requirement to access benefits, as the average delivery partner currently works only 38 days a year.
Conclusion: Roadmap to 2030
The 2026 Survey projects that non-agricultural gig roles will constitute 6.7% of India’s workforce by 2029–30, contributing an estimated ₹2.35 lakh crore to the national GDP. While the flexibility of gig work remains a major draw for India’s youth (aged 24–38), the government’s focus for the 2026–27 fiscal year is clearly shifting from “job quantity” to “job quality and protection.”
