Gig Platforms as Faux Infrastructure: A Case Study of Women Beauty Workers in India

Abstract

In order to sustain everyday life in India during pandemic induced lockdowns, home service gig platforms materialized to provide essential services for urban society. As unemployment worsened, these gig platforms also emerged as key sources of paid work for gig workers, with some platforms promising an unusual degree of health and financial support for their gig workforce. Through semi-structured interviews, we examine how women beauty workers engaged with the infrastructural promise extended by home service gig platforms during the pandemic. While gig platforms promoted the potential of stable income and social security in the context of the Global South, we investigate the reality behind this image. We find that various breakdowns, from miscommunication around localized travel restrictions to limited platform helpline access, introduces day-to-day unpredictability for gig workers, hindering access to paid work as well as other platform extended benefits. We suggest that home service gig platforms actually serve as 'faux infrastructure,' in which the privatized logics work to enclose public value, while pushing the burden of access onto gig workers who must perform additional, often unpaid labors, in order to fill last-mile service gaps.