Platform Work, Gig Labour and Regulatory Frameworks in India

National Law School of India University (NLSIU), in collaboration with RLS South Asia, is conducting research on precarious employment in India's organised sector, examining how changes in the labour regulatory regime affect workers across platform-based and gig work, urban services and the garment industry.

The project is anchored in the NLSIU Centre for Labour Studies (CLS) and focuses on four areas. First, it will study employment conditions in the urban services sector, with particular attention to work done by women in the care economy, personal care and grooming services, and examine regulatory gaps in platform-based service delivery. This component will also produce a comic book on domestic workers and platform work, and hold a seminar on platform regulation. Second, it will examine the landscape of low value-added gig work in the IT and IT-enabled services sector, mapping stakeholder interests and regulatory priorities, alongside a meeting on the political economy of the IT start-up sector. Third, it will analyse employment conditions among the lowest tiers of data work, including content moderation on AI-enabled platforms. Fourth, it will conduct a post-tariff analysis of the Indian garment manufacturing sector, examining the impact on workers, brands and the legal frameworks governing the industry.

Taken together, the research aims to produce a grounded understanding of how regulatory change under India's new labour codes is shaping the conditions of workers in sectors that are growing rapidly but remain poorly protected.