Nearly 200,000 active couriers: why Kazakhstani women go into delivery work
Kazakhstan has counted more than 912,000 platform economy participants, with around 200,000 active couriers. Women go into delivery work because they cannot combine a regular job with childcare.
More than 912,000 Kazakhstanis are registered in the platform economy — in taxis and delivery services, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Population reported. Around 200,000 of them are active couriers. The ministry did not give an exact number of women but confirmed that their share is growing.
For some Kazakhstani women, delivery work is not a choice for a flexible schedule but a forced way to earn money when a regular job with fixed hours is out of reach because they care for children or sick relatives.
Why does courier work become a trap?
Single mothers and women caring for children with disabilities or seriously ill relatives often cannot work a standard schedule. Delivery work allows them to earn money daily, work just a few hours, and requires no special education.
After maternity leave, Aisha Sultangazina was unable to return to her job as a kindergarten teacher. She is raising a child with a disability on her own and started working as a courier while a neighbor looks after her son.
"I am the mother of a child disabled since childhood. I receive an allowance, but it barely covers basic needs. The child is growing, everything is getting more expensive. The child's father abandoned us as soon as he learned about our son's diagnosis. I am raising him alone, there is no one to help," the woman said.
The flexible schedule has a flip side:
- long hours working outdoors in any weather;
- heavy bags and kilometers of walking;
- no toilets or rest areas;
- dependence on platform algorithms;
- risks on the roads.
What does the state offer — at Yandex Qazaqstan's expense?
The authorities, together with private business, have launched a pilot project to support women couriers from socially vulnerable groups. They are offered retraining, skills upgrading, and help finding permanent employment. The program receives no budget funding: Yandex Qazaqstan has taken on the financing entirely, while the Ministry of Labor acts as moderator and observer.
The Couriers' Union doubts the program will reach the workers themselves. According to the organization's co-founder Nursultan Lesbayev, many of the women the union speaks with are not even aware of the retraining opportunity.
"The effectiveness of any project should be measured not by beautiful memorandums and reports, but by concrete changes in a person's life. Did the woman master a profession, did she manage to get a stable job, did her net income increase," he noted.
One of the industry's biggest problems is the lack of comprehensive statistics on platform workers. According to the Couriers' Union estimates, in Almaty alone at least 50,000 couriers go online every day. "This is a colossal economic force; they keep the metropolis running and feed their families, yet they remain absolutely without rights," Lesbayev said.
How much do couriers actually earn?
The Couriers' Union advises against relying on the advertised figures from aggregators. From earnings, one must subtract the costs of mobile service and internet, transportation, bicycle or car repairs, equipment depreciation, taxes, and commissions.
A separate issue is injuries. "If a courier gets into a traffic accident, slips on ice, is injured, or is assaulted while on a delivery, who is responsible? Today, it is enough for aggregators to state in the user agreement that the courier is an independent contractor and wash their hands of it," Lesbayev said. The union demands a transparent system of insurance and compensation for downtime and injuries.
Certain social guarantees already exist: platform operators pay pension contributions, social contributions, compulsory health insurance (OSMS), and individual income tax at a 1% rate on behalf of couriers. Part-time delivery work in itself does not deprive a family of the right to targeted social assistance if the total income is below the poverty line.
Experts emphasize: the problem is broader than courier delivery. Women go "out onto the street" when they cannot find a job with a suitable schedule, get a kindergarten place, or secure care for a child with a disability. Among couriers there are certified teachers, doctors, and engineers. For some women, the flexible schedule turns out to be not an advantage but a forced alternative to the absence of other options.
Original: t.me
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