Keralam has begun opening dedicated rest centres for gig and platform workers under a new state scheme named ‘Gigon’, starting with Thiruvananthapuram.
The first phase covers three cities, with centres meant to let delivery riders, ride-hailing drivers and other online workers rest between assignments. The scheme is framed as a step to improve welfare and working conditions for a workforce that has no fixed workplace and spends long hours on the road. The state has engaged temporary staff to run the centres, with recruitment routed through the district labour office.
The move fits a broader pattern of Indian states building gig-worker protections outside the Centre’s framework. Karnataka has promulgated an ordinance levying a welfare cess on aggregators such as Swiggy, Zomato, Ola and Uber, and Rajasthan passed platform-based gig worker welfare legislation earlier. Keralam has separately opposed the Centre’s four labour codes while pursuing its own labour measures.
Rest infrastructure addresses a specific complaint from gig workers: nowhere to pause, eat or shelter during shifts that run through heat and monsoon. Whether the centres are used at scale will depend on their location relative to delivery hotspots and on awareness among workers. What to watch: the rollout to the remaining two cities in the first phase and early uptake at the Thiruvananthapuram centre.
