城市即时配送依靠近乎无限的廉价劳动力，Swiggy称在2025年新年前夜其司机合计行驶了相当于“从地球到月球往返”距离的8倍。围绕待遇的争论加剧：NITI Aayog预计零工人数将从2020-21年的770万增至2029-30年的2350万，而一名作者估算扣除燃油后时薪仅34卢比，12月25日约4万名骑手罢工并有人随后被封禁。
尽管有轶事与抗议，NBER的一篇工作论文比较印度、印尼和肯尼亚后发现，印度多数配送司机并非来自全职正规工作，但其中超过一半后来进入正规岗位。典型配送伙伴为28岁男性、兼职驾驶者，将零工作为跳板，而且全职司机的月净收入仍高于临时劳工。
零工经济在正规化印度原本混乱的劳动力市场：起初超过90%的工作是非正规，但去年末的新劳动法为数字零工提供法律保护与社会保障，1月13日劳工部长要求平台放弃常见却鲁莽的“10分钟送达”承诺。与此同时，未来十年需要吸纳8400万年轻人进入劳动力市场，尽管印度拥有大型经济体中最高的GDP增速，却有30%的毕业生失业，论文还提示配送司机拥有高等教育学位的比例高于平均水平。
Instant delivery in urban India runs on a near-unlimited pool of cheap labor, and Swiggy claims that on New Year’s Eve 2025 its drivers collectively traveled eight times the distance from the Earth to the Moon and back. The debate over treatment is intensifying: NITI Aayog projects gig workers rising from 7.7m in 2020-2021 to 23.5m by 2029-30, one writer estimated earnings of just 34 rupees per hour after fuel, and about 40,000 riders struck on December 25 with some later blocked.
Despite anecdotes and protests, an NBER working paper comparing India, Indonesia, and Kenya finds most Indian delivery drivers do not enter from full-time formal work, yet more than half move into formal jobs afterward. The average delivery partner is a 28-year-old male driving part-time, using gig work as a stepping stone, and full-time drivers’ monthly net earnings still exceed those of casual labor.
Gig work is formalizing a workforce where over 90% of jobs start informal: late last year new labor laws granted digital gig workers legal protections and social security, and on January 13 the labor minister urged apps to drop reckless “ten-minute” delivery promises. Over the next decade India must absorb 84m young people into work, and despite the highest GDP growth among big economies, 30% of graduates are jobless, while the paper suggests delivery drivers are more likely than the average Indian to hold a tertiary degree.
Source: A booming gig economy is formalising India’s labour force
Subtitle: Good news for delivery drivers
Dateline: 2月 05, 2026 04:17 上午 | DELHI