Exploring the lived experiences of internal migrant gig workers through the lens of the Capability Approach
本研究通过能力方法，基于43次深度访谈，分析了印度内部移民零工工人面临的不稳定就业如何限制其福祉和人类发展，并呼吁政策改革以增强工人的实际自由。
This study explores the lived experiences of internal migrant workers in India’s Gig economy through the lens of the Capability Approach. It explores how precarious employment, marked by income instability, job insecurity, and lack of social protection, restricts well-being and human development. Despite their essential role in urban economies, these workers remain largely excluded from formal labour safeguards. Using reflexive thematic analysis of 43 in-depth interviews across various sectors, the study uncovers how structural constraints – such as wage volatility, algorithmic control, and the absence of collective bargaining – limit workers’ capabilities and functionings. Thirteen key functionings, including emotional well-being, social recognition, and professional growth, are found to be consistently undermined by systemic precarity, inadequate healthcare, and long working hours. While workers demonstrate notable resilience, their aspirations are frequently stifled by entrenched power asymmetries. By embedding the Capability Approach within the gig economy context, the study offers a nuanced understanding of sustainable employment and psychological health in precarious labour markets. It calls for policy reforms – fair wages, social protection, and legal safeguards – to enhance the worker’s real freedoms, and encourages further research into the intersectional and contextual dynamics shaping internal migrant labour precarity.