Delhi’s municipal authority has unveiled a new gig-economy scheme that turns citizens into paid shopping-bag carriers, a move that UK economists warn could set a dangerous precedent for labour rights and algorithmic control. The initiative, branded as ‘DilliDhara’, allows residents to register via a mobile app to carry groceries and purchases for others within designated market zones. Payment is calculated per kilometre walked, with surge pricing during peak hours.
The city claims it will reduce traffic congestion and provide flexible income for thousands. But economists at the London School of Economics and Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI point to a darker underbelly: the potential to create a class of ‘human mules’ whose labour is optimised by algorithms with no regard for fatigue or safety. Professor Amrita Sen, a labour economist, warns that such platforms often exploit the most vulnerable, trapping them in a cycle of low wages and surveillance.
The scheme uses real-time GPS tracking and automated rating systems to discipline carriers, mirroring the ‘management by algorithm’ seen in food delivery apps. Critics argue that Delhi is normalising a model where humans are reduced to nodes in a logistics network, stripped of employee benefits or collective bargaining power. Meanwhile, the UK’s Trades Union Congress has called for a global moratorium on such gig-economy experiments until ethical guidelines are established.
Delhi’s chief minister defends the programme as a ‘smart solution’ for urban mobility, but the debate raises fundamental questions about digital sovereignty and the commodity of human effort.
