‘I earn Rs 800 daily… pay Rs 5,500 rent’: Life and (hard) work of a 21-year-old gig worker in Gurgaon

Asked if she liked what she did, she answered quickly. “It feels good to be working; my family would otherwise be getting me married off.”

She said she was 21, and her surname suggested she was a Dalit. Her family, originally from Bihar, now lived in West Bengal, she said. She had come to Gurgaon to work about a year ago, and she had been with Pronto for six months.

How much does she make?

“We are promised Rs 36,000 per month if we work 12-hour shifts, and Rs 27,000 for 8-hour shifts, with two days off every month,” she said. “But the actual income is less than that. I usually earn about Rs 800 daily.”

What she earns is not her main grouse, though — it’s the heavy bag she has to lug around, and the fact that she often gets no time between jobs, not even for lunch.

“Forget eating in peace, there is hardly any time to even rest for a few minutes. When I get too tired, I have to tell my manager I will not take slots for some time,” she said.

The manager has promised her though, that a provision for a lunch break between slots is in the works, along with plans to make the bag lighter, she said.

All workers on the app — Pronto calls them “professionals” — are women, and the 21-year-old goes to her gigs riding pillion on a bike with a male ‘rider’. Women professionals who know how to ride on Yulu electric bikes.

Has she ever had an unpleasant experience with a client?

Yes, she said, and mostly in homes that seem more affluent than the average.

“They act as though they have bought us for that half hour or one hour, and want us to do whatever they want. They know we only have basic chemicals, but they demand deep cleaning that would take hours.”

In her experience, young male professionals who live alone or with other men have been the most polite. “They always tell me to do only as much as is reasonably possible within that time frame, and they never raise their voices,” she said.

She said she shared a room in Gurgaon’s Sector 52 with a woman who did the same job as hers at Pronto. “She has her shift at noon usually, and does 8 hours. We have not told our landlord or neighbours what we do, we remove our uniforms and leave the kit bag at the ‘hub’. People will talk if they get to know, and the landlord may want to increase the rent.”

She and her roommate pay a monthly rent of Rs 5,500.

Does she manage to save?

Her uncle and aunt who moved to Gurgaon a few years ago had told her parents that women could work in the city, and that made it easier for her to leave home, she said. She got on to the app just as a lot of Bengali Muslims were leaving for fear of being rounded up as Bangladeshis last year, and she benefited from the spike in demand.

She worked up to 16 hours daily in the Diwali week, and hit Rs 45,000 in earnings that month, including incentives.

“I send at least Rs 10,000 home every month. Right now, I don’t mind doing this, but if I find 4-5 good homes who will employ me long-term, I will switch. In a way I will get to choose who I work for, unlike now.”