Informality, Precarity, and (Mis)classification: Regulating Platform Work in India

This thesis seeks to address the misclassification of location-based digital platform workers in India and examine the extent of protections that can be accorded to them within the framework of labour and constitutional rights. It firstly argues that the exclusion of platform workers from the purview of the formalistic labour law in India is not a novel phenomenon but, rather, is situated along a continuum of exclusionary regulatory practices dating back to the colonial era. Thereafter, the thesis examines the applicability of India’s extant, and fragmented, labour law framework to platform workers. It then embarks upon an analysis of the newly enacted labour Codes, which are yet to come into force and have sought to harmonize and consolidate the existing legal framework, to examine whether the said Codes constitute an improvement concerning platform workers’ rights. Lastly, it explores constitutional law as an alternative avenue for litigating platform workers’ rights.