New Delhi, Dec. 18 -- India's food delivery sector directly employed 1.37 million workers in 2023-24, up from 1.08 million in 2021-22, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3%, according to a recent study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), and investment group Prosus. It thus comfortably outpaced India's overall employment growth rate of 7.9% over the same period.

However, gig workers' representatives and policy experts said these numbers actually hide job distress across the gig economy, where food delivery workers continue to work for up to 12-14 hours a day for abysmally low incomes. They said the fact the more people were engaging was in fact a consequent of rising unemployment.

Despite a...