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News » India’s youth turning to gigs, scam call centers

India’s youth turning to gigs, scam call centers

India's youth turning to gigs, scam call centers
Photo from Thomson Reuters Foundation

AHMEDABAD, INDIA — Educated youth are being forced to turn to the gig economy, scam call centers, online microwork, and other low-paying jobs, according to analysts.

The gig economy in India is one of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world. Government think-tank Niti Aayog says there were nearly 8 million gig workers in 2020-2021, which will expand to 24 million workers by 2029-2030.

But according to Rikta Krishnaswamy, coordinator of the All India Gig Workers’ Union, workers earn low wages and have few protections.

“The government, the industry and employers pitch gig work as the future of work, glorifying it as something that is desirable. But what we are really seeing is an erosion of hard-won labour rights. With increased digitisation, gig work is only going to get bigger and worse – especially with data annotation and labelling for AI,” Krishnaswamy explained.

IT industry body NASSCOM estimates that by 2030, up to one million Indians could be working full-time or part-time in data annotation and labeling — both critical to artificial intelligence (AI).

“Data annotation is the current outsourcing model. But clients don’t pay much because it is a low-skill job,” said Muzammil Hussain, founder of Tika Data in Bengaluru.

NASSCOM says about 50,000 freelancers operate as ghost workers, getting just a few cents to label data on platforms.

Urvashi Aneja, director of Digital Futures Lab, who studies the platform economy, says these workers are at the “bottom of the AI value chain” with no prospect of higher wages or upskilling.

“A lot of this work is very precarious, and it’s not being thought through holistically, from the point of view of worker welfare or longevity,” she said. “It’s a pretty bleak outlook: a lot of the clickwork and piecework that is being outsourced now will also get automated.”

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