Over 15% gig workers face financial deficit of Rs 5,000 on average: Report

Over 15 per cent of workers faced a financial deficit of Rs 5,000 on average in a given month, revealed GigPulse report. A financial solutions provider for gig and blue-collar workers and LEAD at Krea University on Friday released the report titled GigPulse, to bring the day-to-day work and financial lives of the gig workers to light.

Based on the survey, over 80 per cent of gig workers do not own a credit card facility, of which two-thirds feel the need. 6.6 per cent have current or outstanding loans, 11.5 per cent have active EMIs, and 26.3 per cent borrow from the peers they work with. The report suggests only 25 per cent are able to regularly save; children's education and medical emergencies are vital reasons cited.

"Gig workers are young with a median age of 27 years, out of which 37 per cent are married, 29 per cent with children, and 28 per cent are migrants. Around 60 per cent are motivated to work to support their family. In contrast, 18 per cent claim gig work helps them earn extra pocket money," the report mentioned.

Rohit Rathi, Co-founder and CEO, KarmaLife said, "This is a time-critical initiative to capture granular insights and build a data-backed narrative on the lives of a pivotal workforce segment in our country. There is too scarce data on worker identities, household context, needs and aspirations, work patterns, financial behaviours and resilience mechanisms. Through this partnership with LEAD at KREA University, we hope to create a rich longitudinal data asset that can help the ecosystem at large."

Sharon Buteau, Executive Director, LEAD at Krea University said, “We are excited to be collaborating with industry focused players to generate new intelligence on one of the fastest-growing yet most vulnerable worker segments. We find this especially relevant as India is on the cusp of implementing a new social security code that bestows first-time recognition to gig workers and promises them deeper social protection. We plan to leverage this database for further study relevant to policy actors.”