‘Whole world agreed on protecting gig workers’: Shashi Tharoor calls Centre’s abstention at ILO vote ‘national disgrace’

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday hit out at the Indian government for abstaining from a vote on the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention on “decent work in the Platform Economy”, which is aimed at minimum standards for gig workers.

“The Indian government’s decision to abstain on the ILO’s Convention on “decent work in the Platform Economy”, which establishes minimum conditions for gig workers and which Indian employers and workers both voted to support, is a national disgrace,” Tharoor said in a post on X.

ILO’s convention on gig workers

At its 114th session in Geneva, on June 12, the ILO adopted the convention concerning decent work in the platform economy, the first of its kind to protect gig workers. It establishes binding minimum-wage, occupational safety, and social-security standards for digital platform workers and was adopted by a recorded vote of 406 delegates in favour, 8 against.

A total of 36 ILO members, including India, abstained from the vote.

“Instead of abstaining, the government should have endorsed the standards the whole world has agreed upon to protect gig workers, and adopted them in domestic legislation,” Tharoor said.

India’s growing gig economy

According to Human Rights Watch, platform or gig work is growing rapidly around the world, from taxi and food delivery to care work and online data tasks. The World Bank has estimated that 435 million people globally earn income through labour platforms.

India is one of the largest gig economies in the world. The Labour Codes have formally recognised gig and platform workers, expanding social security, welfare funds, and benefit portability. According to the Economic Survey 2025-26, India had 120 lakh gig workers in fiscal year 2025.

“The gig economy, encompassing delivery, ridesharing, and freelancing, has witnessed structural growth, transitioning informal jobs into ecosystem-integrated roles. “From 77 lakh workers in FY21, the sector witnessed a 55 per cent increase to 120 lakh workers in FY25, driven by smartphone penetration among over 80 crore users and 15 billion UPI transactions per month. Now representing over 2 per cent of the total workforce in India, growth of gig workers outpaces overall employment, with non-agricultural gigs projected to constitute 6.7 per cent of the workforce by 2029-30, contributing ₹2.35 lakh crore to GDP,” the Economic Survey document noted.

“As the gig economy expands, its impact on employment and economic growth will become increasingly evident. While it offers unprecedented opportunities for revenue generation and economic diversification, addressing its challenges is crucial to ensuring long-term, equitable growth,” it added.

Despite the ‘work flexibility’ these platforms offer, gig workers in India have long complained about issues like unstable earnings, arbitrary ID deactivations, absence of medical, accidental, or life insurance coverage and unreasonable targets.

According to Tharoor, India’s decision to abstain from the ILO vote shows the government’s ‘tone-deafness to the needs of young Indians’.

“This is one more example of the establishment’s tone-deafness to the needs of young Indians, in this case the lakhs who earn a bare living through an app,” the Congress leader said.