Gig Economy Debate: Can Companies Like Zomato Be Blamed for Worker Exploitation?
On Christmas and New Year’s Day 2026, as delivery volumes surged, gig economy workers across India attempted to strike. Their demands were modest: a minimum order rate of just ₹20 per delivery, basic facilities like toilet access, social security, and fair wages. Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal responded by calling the protesters “miscreants” and thanking law enforcement for breaking the strike.
The incident sparked a national debate, but the controversy reveals something far more fundamental: India’s gig economy is not a success story of innovation and job creation—it is, in the words of the video, a “desperation economy” built on the backs of a workforce with no alternatives.
The Core Demands: Dignity inDelivery
Gig workers—delivery partners for Zomato, Swiggy, Blinkit, Amazon, Flipkart—have articulated clear grievances:
- No guaranteed minimum earnings or order value assurance
- Inaccessible basic facilities: no toilet access, no elevator access in buildings
- No social security: no provident fund, pension, proper health insurance
- Arbitrary platform blocking: suspension from the app means immediate loss of livelihood without grievance redressal
- Unpaid waiting time: hours spent logged into the app waiting for orders go uncompensated
- Privacy violations: extensive tracking mechanisms on workers’ phones under the guise of “safety”
- Speed pressure: despite management claims, workers race to complete orders faster to secure more deliveries
The Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union summed up the frustration: “Don’t lie. We have also put you on notice and you have taken the help of administration and police to break our strike.”
Deepinder Goyal’s Defence and Its contradictions
In a series of tweets following the controversy, Goyal presented data to defend Zomato’s record:
Earnings Claims:
- 2025 Earnings Per Hour (excluding tips): ₹102 per hour (₹92 in 2024)
- For someone working 10 hours daily for 26 days: potential earnings of ₹26,500—“more than starting IT industry salary”
- After 20% deduction for maintenance and fuel: ₹20,000-21,000
Benefits Provided:
- Accident insurance: ₹10 lakh
- Medical insurance: ₹1 lakh
- Loss of pay insurance: ₹50,000
- Maternity insurance: ₹40,000
- NPS (PRAN) for over 50,000 partners
- Emergency SOS feature
Operational Defence:
- Average Blinkit delivery distance: 2 km, average time: 8 minutes, average speed: 16 km/h
- Average Zomato delivery speed: 20-21 km/h (not excessive)
- No artificial timers pressuring delivery partners
On the surface, the data suggests a reasonably compensated workforce with benefits rare in India’s informal sector.
The Smoking Gun: Gig Economy Is Not Real Employment
But Deepinder Goyal’s own data dismantles his claim that Zomato is a “job creation engine.” Consider:
The 38-Day Reality:
- The average Zomato delivery partner worked only 38 days per year in 2025
- Average of 7 hours per working day
- Only 2.3% of registered partners work more than 250 days annually
The numbers expose the gig economy’s true nature. As the video explains: “Gig does not mean full employment. The gig economy is about working when you have time, to have a secondary income, a desire to work more hours on gigs after completing their main job.”
In other words: The vast majority use platforms like Zomato as a supplemental income source because their primary job doesn’t pay enough.
The video contrasts this with America, where 70% of gig workers have primary income from elsewhere. In India, the implication is darker: “If not, then it shows how bad the condition of our economy and employment of our youth is… that they have to depend on gigs for their income, for their basic income.”
The Desperation Economy
When the video compares gig work earnings to other informal jobs, the picture becomes clearer:
- Housemaid: ₹500-1000 daily
- Battery rickshaw operator: ₹500-1500 daily (if vehicle is owned)
- Auto driver: ₹700-1800 daily
- Daily wage labourer: ₹500-1000 daily
- Sweet shop/restaurant helper: ₹600 daily
- Office boy: ₹700 daily
- Taxi driver: ₹1500-2000 daily (if vehicle owned)
A Zomato delivery partner working the “average” 38 days per year, at ₹102 per hour for 7 hours daily, would earn approximately ₹27,000 annually—or roughly ₹2,250 per month. Even the 2.3% who work 250+ days might reach ₹35,000-40,000 yearly.
This is not transformative employment. It is survival. The video calls it a “MGNREGA-type situation” but without the guarantee of even 100 days of work.
Who Is Responsible?
The transcript asks the crucial question: When labor is this cheap and working conditions this precarious, who bears responsibility?
1. Tech Platforms: Exploit surplus labor, resist regulation, fight unions, shift costs and risks onto workers while capturing value. Deepinder Goyal’s claim that “if Zomato was unfair, thousands wouldn’t work” rings hollow when people have no alternatives. The video draws a parallel to “zamindari” systems where landlords could claim they provide jobs.
2. Government: Failed to create formal employment at scale. The video cites alarming facts:
- Demographic dividend unrealized: youth meant for factories now deliver parcels
- “Crore jobs per year” promise remains unfulfilled
- Deindustrialization forcing people back to agriculture or gig work
- IT sector: entry-level salaries stuck at ₹25,000-30,000 for 20 years while top management salaries rose 300-3000%
- NITI Aayog’s Amitabh Kant says gig economy is not job creation—yet government tries to take credit for it
3. Consumers: We demand cheap delivery, cheap goods, convenience. We subsidize this system through our purchasing decisions. “If it becomes too expensive, we might not even order it.”
4. Broader Economic Structure: Education system produces graduates unemployable for higher-value work. Manufacturing sector hasn’t expanded. Formal jobs remain scarce. Surplus labor keeps wages depressed.
The Regulatory Dilemma
Deepinder Goyal’s aggressive public stance suggests another fear: “The government may come tomorrow and over-regulate.” He argues that India’s tech sector flourished precisely because it wasn’t regulated—referencing Infosys and Wipro. Over-regulation, he fears, could kill the industry.
The video acknowledges this risk: “It should not happen that a big regulation, a big strike occur… that the existing jobs also are lost.”
Yet the status quo is unsustainable. Workers cannot unionize without police intervention. Benefits are minimal. “Job” implies stability, security, benefits—none of which exist in gig work.
Why This Matters Beyond Zomato
The gig economy debate is symptomatic of a deeper crisis:
- Economic Desperation: When educated youth accept delivery work as better than unemployment, the formal economy has failed
- Informalization as a Business Model: Companies profit by treating workers as “partners” not employees, avoiding labor law obligations
- Data Transparency Required: Goyal’s own statistics reveal the truth—the CEO who most forcefully defends the model accidentally proves its limitations
- Consumer Complicity: Our demand for convenience and low prices underwrites exploitation
- Political Distraction: Credit-taking for “job creation” while real manufacturing and formal employment stagnate
The video poses the challenge directly: “We hope that at least if this is becoming a formalized sector, if you are a public listed company, you will provide them better facilities. You will try to give them a little better salary, at least a little more than the unorganized sector. But at present, the employment being provided to gig economy workers, need not be too happy because their salary structure is not much higher than that of the unemployment sector.”
Toward a Solution?
The video doesn’t propose simple answers. It rejects villainizing a single company while acknowledging systemic failure. The responsibility is shared across platforms, government, consumers, and economic policymakers.
What’s clear: The gig economy as currently structured cannot be India’s employment future. At best it’s a stopgap for those with no options. At worst, it’s a mechanism to keep millions in precarious, low-paid work while investors and founders profit.
“Some gig economy workers without skills without university education, without spending 15-20 lakh… earning the same amount as a normal engineering graduate today—20-25,000 rupees… so it is a matter of shame that we did not allow higher level of employment to happen.”
India needs real jobs—secure, with benefits, career progression, social security. Until then, debates over gig economy exploitation will continue, because the desperation economy will persist.
As the video concludes: “It’s called the gig economy, but it’s nothing but a desperation economy. Where even for such little money, people roam the streets all day trying to earn something.”
This article is based on the video “Gig Economy Debate | Can Companies Like Zomato Be Blamed For Worker Exploitation?” from the Deshbhakt channel. Watch the full video for additional analysis and perspectives.