India elections turn spotlight on informal jobs for youth
Al Jazeera
India’s workforce is becoming more informalised and the quality of employment has suffered since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ever since he can remember, Rohit Kumar Sahu knew he wanted to go to college and get a well-paying, white-collar job. His father delivered courier packages across the eastern Indian city of Ranchi on a bicycle, and Sahu had no idea how to realise his dream.
He signed up for a job with the food delivery app Zomato, thinking this could be his path to earning money to pay for college fees.
Sahu began with just a few hours of work so he could attend college alongside his job, but he could hardly make enough deliveries on a bicycle or earn much.
He took a loan from friends and a finance company and bought a scooter so he could take on more work. Even as the loan repayments kicked in, Zomato reduced its payment to delivery workers like Sahu, and he got fewer deliveries as more drivers joined the app.
Sahu scaled up his work to as much as 14 hours a day, going to college only to take exams, but he still had to borrow money from his parents for loan repayments.
