Women to drive gig economy in new India, suggests Apna.co

MUMBAI: Apna.co, a professional networking and jobs platform, has seen a 40% surge in female users in the second quarter of 2021 due to increasing demand of work home and part-time jobs.

Compared to the last quarter, women participation has seen a rise of 17% in tele-calling, 13% in sales, 12% in accounts and 10% in teaching in part-time jobs. Apna aims to double women’s workforce participation by the end of 2021 as an integral part of its mission to accelerate India’s growth, it said.

The key factor behind the rise of women participation in gig workers is flexible work hours, convenience, higher unit pay, and greater efficiencies.

In the last six months, more than 2.5 lakh women applied for work from home jobs at leading companies such as Byju’s, Teamlease, and Shadowfax, among others, on the platform.

Unlike traditional means, the assurance of providing 100% verified jobs, seamless multilingual app interface, and easy-to-use digital technology has contributed to the increase.

Dedicated features like work from home and part-time jobs enabled women to connect with the right opportunities as per their interest and skill set. Due to flexibility at work, 10% more women are applying for part-time jobs as compared to full-time jobs.

Apna said, in the first year of the pandemic starting March 2020, nearly 20 lakh women from metros migrated back to their hometowns.

"As a disruptive Indian start-up, we aim to serve the country and contribute to the gig economy by boosting employment for Indian women," said Nirmit Parikh, CEO and Founder, apna.

World over, the pandemic has led to a drop in female employment by 13 million from 2019 levels. Male employment, however, has been recovering to pre-pandemic levels, as per International Labour Organization's World Employment and Social Outlook report.