To make ends meet, young, educated workers are forced to turn to low-paid jobs in the gig economy, where fraud call centers perpetuate telefraud on millions each day
Ahmedabad — After finishing college in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, Saurav hunted for work for more than four months before he came across an advertisement for jobs at a call centre. He signed up, not knowing it would one day land him in jail.
“But I was already too involved in it, and I was certain that I would not get another job where I could earn 20,000-25,000 rupees [$241-$302] a month, so I continued working there,” he told Reuters. But these very same factors also encouraged a parallel industry of scam call centres, with American citizens alone losing more than $10bn to phishing gangs and fraud call centre operations in India last year, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation cited by local media.
So educated youth — once touted as a demographic dividend — are forced to turn to the gig economy delivering food and groceries, to scam call centres, online microwork, and other low-paid jobs, analysts say. India is one of the largest and fastest-growing markets for the so-called gig economy, with nearly 8-million workers in 2020-21, and forecast to expand to 24-million workers by 2029-30, according to government think-tank Niti Aayog.“The government, the industry and employers pitch gig work as the future of work, glorifying it as something that is desirable,” said Rikta Krishnaswamy, a co-ordinator at the All India Gig Workers' Union.
Several firms also provide managed services with full-time workers earning about 15,000-25,000 rupees a month.
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