India’s Uber Dilemma: Entrepreneurship or Exploitation?

Uber is part of a “gig economy” trend in India and elsewhere—an economy partially powered by self-employed workers on short-term jobs. While it offers flexible schedules for its drivers, it can also come with long hours and income instability.cities demands perseverance and innovation. Four hundred million urban residents in India navigate city streets every day. Buses can be unreliable and trains crowded; sidewalks are rare, and mixed traffic puts cyclists at risk.

Uber has certainly changed the experience of work and life in urban India. It has offered another travel option in often transportation-challenged cities, and drivers are enthusiastic about the new work. But the anthropological fieldwork we’ve conducted over the last nine months suggests that the service does not always live up to its promise—for passengers or drivers.

Speaking in Delhi recently, David Plouffe, former campaign manager for Barack Obama and now an Uber adviser and board member, proudly noted that drivers are extremely engaged with the company, opening 40 percent of emails or other messages they get from management. “Even the Obama campaign never cracked 20 percent,” said Plouffe. But engaged doesn’t mean the drivers are loyal or happy.

Ola, an India-based rival to Uber, is part of a larger movement of app-based taxi companies in the gig economy.Despite the illusion of easy employment Uber cultivates , drivers sometimes need each other’s help. In Jodhpur, there’s an unofficial Uber stand where drivers wait together for pings on their phones. Some drivers describe helping new applicants with their paperwork and advocating for others when Uber cancels its “partnership” with them because of poor passenger ratings.

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