Interestingly, the incident occurred on the same day that the ban on bike taxis came into effect in Karnataka, yet users were still able to book rides. This has reignited discussions about regulatory compliance and the ethical frameworks governing platform-based services. The complexity of aggregator operations, often straddling legal and technical boundaries, makes it essential to examine how existing laws are interpreted and enforced. A notable development came in September 2024, when the Karnataka High Court, held that taxi aggregator – Ola, could be subject to the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“POSH Act”) for an incident involving the sexual harassment of a woman passenger by a driver-subscriber, challenging the often-assumed contractor model that many platforms rely on to limit liability.

In that case, the woman had filed a complaint with Ola, leading to the suspension of the driver’s account. However, further action under the POSH Act was not initiated, as Ola’s Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) concluded that driver-partners were independent contractors and thus fell outside the definition of ‘employee’. The High Court rejected this determination and applied the test of control and supervision (established through judicial precedents over the years) to assess employment status. The court observed that Ola’s subscription agreement exercised significant control over various aspects of the driver’s engagement, including fare rates, nature and manner of service, vehicle maintenance, bookings, payments, and cancellation policies, thus limiting drivers’ autonomy.

Although the High Court’s decision has since been stayed, it represents a beacon of hope for women’s safety advocates and serves as a reminder to both the government and tech platforms of their duty to create safe environments for women through effective policies and enforcement. Importantly, these concerns should not be limited to taxi aggregators alone, as similar complaints have surfaced against other digital aggregators, including food delivery apps and beauty service platforms. The tragic death of a beauty worker on a gig platform, allegedly due to repeated mental harassment, is a grim reminder of the precarious conditions women face in the gig economy.

In this context, it is crucial to examine the current legal and policy framework and assess how effectively it addresses women’s safety in aggregator-run environments.

The first formal mention of “aggregator” in Indian legislation occurred in the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, which inserted a new definition under Section 2(1A) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. This amendment empowered states to license aggregators according to central guidelines, leading to the issuance of the Motor Vehicle Aggregators Guidelines, 2020. Under Section 10(3) of these guidelines, aggregators are required to ensure the safety of women employees and drivers in compliance with the POSH Act, although the guidelines are silent on women passengers. Additionally, Section 5(2)(j) mandates driver training on gender sensitization and safety of women and children as a precondition for licensing. These guidelines have been revised recently, and the 2025 Motor Vehicle Aggregators Guidelines mark a significant improvement in safety infrastructure—introducing technology-enabled tracking, identity verification, emergency protocols, and training. Women are explicitly recognized as a vulnerable group, and specific features (like disabled child locks) directly support their security.

However, the guidelines stop short of mandating services like women-only rides, in-app SOS buttons, or strict background checks focused on sexual offences. These areas present opportunities for future policy advancement. Overall, the new guidelines do embed several safeguards for women passengers, signaling a policy shift toward enhanced accountability of aggregators—though more can be done to comprehensively ensure women’s safety.

Several states have aligned with the 2020 central guidelines. For instance, the Kerala State Aggregator Policy mirrors the central standards. Maharashtra has also been actively pursuing the regulation of vehicle aggregators and the state’s transport department came up with the Maharashtra Aggregator Rules, 2021, however, there were no specific provisions for women safety, until the Maharashtra Aggregator Cabs Policy, 2025, which was launched on May 1, 2025. This policy requires aggregators to obtain licenses and implement safety measures including women only ride sharing, GPS tracking, emergency contacts, and thorough driver background checks. Notably, the Chandigarh Administration Motor Vehicle Aggregator Rules, 2025 has already incorporated most of the changes introduced through the recently notified 2025 framework.

In Telangana, T-SAFE app was launched by the Women Safety Wing of the Telangana Police on March 12, 2024, to ensure travel safety for women by monitoring rides. The T-SAFE app enables real time monitoring of rides, detecting anomalies (such as route changes, non-responsiveness to alerts, prolonged stoppages, etc.,). Once anomalies are detected, an emergency response ticket is automatically generated and sent to Telangana Police to enable timely police intervention. The T-SAFE application has been already integrated with the SOS feature of Uber app and the integration of T-SAFE is proposed with other transport aggregators as well.

Apart from transport aggregators, there are payment aggregators regulated by the RBI Payment Aggregator Guidelines, 2020 with limited scope to ensure women’s safety apart from robust data security measures and grievance mechanism which are essential for all aggregators. Other platform aggregators that are treated as digital intermediaries under the Information Technology Act, 2000 are governed by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. These rules include several provisions aimed at ensuring the safety of women online especially, in combating cyber abuse, sexual harassment, non-consensual content, and promoting grievance redressal. It targets the curbing of acts such as revenge porn, deepfakes, voyeurism, cyberstalking, and sexual cyberbullying. It casts specific obligations on aggregators to remove harmful content and publish rules/policies prohibiting users (e.g., drivers, vendors, delivery agents) from posting abusive content. Under the rules, aggregators must also perform due diligence to ensure a safe environment with clear communication and agreement with platform policies that prohibit harassment or misconduct. Aggregators with over 50 lakh users are also additionally required to ensure traceability in messages and appoint nodal officer/compliance officer for constant coordination with law enforcement.

Despite these regulations, the protections remain insufficient, especially in view of the rising number of women in gig work, who now comprise roughly 28–29% of India’s gig workforce. Although the four labour code bills were passed five years ago, only the Code on Social Security, 2020 even mentions gig work. For women, it vaguely promises that the Central Government “may” frame welfare schemes on matters such as health and maternity. The code allows for aggregators to contribute 1–2% of annual turnover, not exceeding 5% of payouts made to gig workers, but implementation has been slow, with few states introducing specific policies or guidelines.

Among the few progressive steps is the Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Act, 2023, which mandates that at least one-third of the Welfare Board’s nominated members be women. A similar provision exists in the Jharkhand Platform-Based Gig Workers (Registration and Welfare) Bill, 2024. However, the Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2024 makes no such provision, reflecting an inconsistency in regional approaches to gender-sensitive policy design.

The recurring incidents of harassment and violence against women using aggregator platforms underscore a critical gap in safety measures and institutional accountability. While recent judicial pronouncements and evolving policy frameworks have begun to question the liability of aggregators, there remains no clear, enforceable mandate that places women’s safety at the core of aggregator operations.

Current legal provisions—whether under the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, the POSH Act, or the IT Rules either do not extend protection to women users or leave it to the discretion of platforms to implement safeguards. This regulatory ambiguity enables aggregators to evade responsibility, especially when their services operate in legally grey zones or technical loopholes.

The need of the hour is a national-level, gender-responsive regulatory framework that recognizes women not only as customers or workers but as individuals entitled to dignity, safety, and redress. Aggregators must no longer be allowed to operate with impunity while deflecting blame to third parties. Women’s safety must be treated not as a feature, but as a foundational duty of every platform that interacts with the public.