Roads turn death traps for gig workers in Kerala
Gig workers in Kerala are facing an alarming increase in fatal road accidents, with unions reporting dozens of deaths among food delivery personnel over the past year. Union leaders attribute the high fatality rate to intense time pressure and heavy traffic, while also highlighting significant challenges in securing insurance compensation for victims' families.
Why it matters
This highlights the growing safety crisis and lack of social security protections for the rapidly expanding gig economy workforce in India.
Roads of Kerala have increasingly been turning killing fields of gig workers. Over 30 such workers, mostly food delivery personnel, have been killed in road accidents in the State in the past one year, according to informal data collected by the Kerala State Gig and Platform Workers Union (KSGPWU) affiliated with the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
The union initiated the data collection in the wake of recent back-to-back road accidents that claimed the lives of delivery personnel. As per the data, 16 delivery personnel were killed in road accidents in Thiruvananthapuram district alone while work-hour rides turned fatal for 11 workers in Ernakulam. The union has also recorded three such deaths from Kottayam and two from Thrissur. Time constraints coupled with heavy traffic often contribute to the higher number of fatalities, those involved in the sector say.
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