Risha Ramachandran is a qualitative researcher who is passionate to work in the areas of gender, work and mental health. She has a Master’s in Social work (Mental Health) from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. After her Masters, she worked in a community based mental health project in Mehsana, Gujarat and later developed a curriculum on psycho-social aspects of entrepreneurship for rural women with TISS and UNDP. Prior to Dvara, she was working as a Research Associate with the Institute of Social Studies Trust, Delhi exploring different research methodologies with a focus on informal and gig economy and state policies and frameworks through an intersectional lens.
The study explores the financial lives of platform workers and finding answers to the following questions: do platform workers face volatility in their income and expenses, and how much do their earnings and expenditures vary on a day-to-day basis; how long do they work to earn as much as they would like to; whether and where they save and borrow; what strategies do they adopt to manage their money to meet their day-to-day expenses, raise lump-sums, deal with and recover from shocks; what social protection benefits do they have access to; what their financial goals are; and what barriers exist, if at all, in their pursuit of those goals.
