INDIAN FEDERATION OF APP-BASED TRANSPORT WORKERS (IFAT)

Beginning 2017, and after 2 years of groundwork, mentoring, organizing, mobilizing, and networking of grass root level drivers and riders Unions, associations, and self-help groups, the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) was established in December 2019. Since then, IFAT has been instrumental in organising, raising the profile, and influencing legislative policy changes with regard to gig and platform workers in India. The Federation represents the voice of nearly 25,000 app-based drivers & riders in over 10 cities of India. In 2020 Parliament passed the Social Security Code and IFAT could take some credit for its fruition, particularly the inclusion of gig and platform workers for social security benefits. During the two years of pandemic during which app-based drivers and riders faced economic ruination apart from serious health risks and even casualties, IFAT efforts included providing ration kits, emergency cash transfers, arranging medical support and hospitalisation for drivers, riders and their family members, and more importantly keeping the pressure on the government and the app-based companies by highlighting the plight of the distressed drivers/riders and seeking deferment and moratorium on their loans, demands for cash support, etc. Later in 2021 many IFAT organisations took the lead in registering thousands of app-based drivers and riders on the e-shram portal and issuing them e-shram cards. And finally, in the last quarter of 2021 public-spirited and IFAT supportive lawyers succeeded in filing a Pubic Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court of India seeking to secure social security benefits and economic reliefs to app-based workers.