Padma (name changed) has been working with a prominent home delivery services company in Bengaluru, as a beauty services provider for three years now. After migrating from her hometown in Sikkim to Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, to work in a salon, she then moved to Bengaluru after the COVID-19 pandemic to become a gig worker. “The company charges a 30% commission, but I get paid every three days.
That helps. After my husband met with an accident, it has not been easy for us. So, cash in hand and some amount of flexibility is useful,” she says.
Padma’s sister too has moved to Bengaluru and offers her services through the same company. The company offered a training programme for professionals for a facial treatment package that is to be launched, and she notes that there was a good mix of locals and migrants from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and the northeastern States among them. These women are among the many who have migrated to the Silicon Valley of India (Bengaluru).
There is already a two-lakh-strong gig workforce in the city, facilitated by tech platforms such as Uber, Ola, Swiggy, Zomato and Dunzo among others. The Karnataka government recently proposed a ‘quota-for-local’ Bill. which has been put in cold storage following a pushback on the proposal by corporates in the State.
Nevertheless, at a time when India witnesses huge migration, characterised by an influx of people from rural regions to cities and more prosperous economies, and driven by a.