India’s labor laws neglect influencers’ rights, reflecting a broader issue of informality and exclusion in the country’s labor framework.
Authors
Malcolm Katrak, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School, Jindal Global University, India
Shardool Kulkarni, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada
Summary
The Indian approach towards regulating influencer labour reveals an emphasis on the obligations of influencers, particularly those regarding disclosures in the context of consumer protection, while paying little attention to the protection of their fundamental rights at work as self-employed workers. Policy decisions, such as the ban imposed on TikTok by the Indian government in 2020 without accounting for the livelihoods of numerous working-class influencers, also reflect a disregard for the rights of influencers. However, the same does not constitute a failure to grapple with ostensibly novel forms of work but, rather, is emblematic of the history of exclusions that have shaped labour law in India. Despite individuals in standard employment relationships representing only a small percentage of the total workforce, Indians employed in the informal sector, or engaged in self-employment and casual wage work, have been left bereft of the protections accorded by India’s labour law framework, which is also fragmented and marked by a multiplicity of laws at the national and state level. This chapter seeks to situate the failure to regulate influencer labour in a uniquely Indian context of pervasive informality despite a constitutional mandate for socioeconomic justice.
Published in: The Hashtag Hustle: Law and Policy Perspectives on Working in the Influencer Economy
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