Abstract:

Research on Uttar Pradesh's labour market has separately documented a slowing food processing sector and a rapidly growing gig economy, but has not asked whether the two sectors are economically connected beyond simple worker displacement. This paper asks whether food processing and gig-based platform logistics share a two-way, complementary relationship: whether food processing growth generates gig employment through rising delivery demand, and whether gig-based logistics in turn improves market access for food processing units, particularly small ones. It also asks whether any such complementarity comes with decent work conditions for the gig workers involved. Using secondary data from a, PLFS, and NITI Aayog, alongside recent academic work on gig-work measurement and inter-sectoral employment linkages, the paper finds that food delivery has become the largest single category of gig work in Uttar Pradesh, that gig-based logistics plausibly, though not yet provenly improves market access for food processors, and that this growing economic linkage has not been accompanied by any improvement in gig worker conditions, which remain informal and without social protection. The paper concludes that food processing and gig work should be treated as connected sectors in future research and policy, while stressing that economic complementarity between sectors and decent work for the workers within them are separate problems that require separate policy attention.

Keywords:

Food Processing; Gig Economy; Platform Work; Uttar Pradesh; Decent Work; Labour Market Linkages

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Methods