India’s women gig workers are on their own

Over and above long hours and declining wages, it is the indifference to their safety that women gig workers have to tackle on a daily basis.

From being married off at 16, and being left to fend for herself in her early twenties with two young daughters, Ganga Mandal has come a long way. Today, the 35-year-old single mother lives in a two-bedroom house she bought recently in Jaipur’s Jaisinghpura neighborhood. Parked outside the house is a white Maruti Suzuki Alto. “This is my car,” she says, beaming with pride. 

Mandal is an Uber driver, a job she took up four years ago. It is as much a passion as a way to raise her teenage daughters, she says. The family of three, along with their …