Food delivery platform Zomato has decided to do away with the idea of dressing its newly-launched “pure veg fleet” in green uniforms, after an uproar on social media over concerns of the concept possibly encouraging discrimination on the grounds of caste and religion.
Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal posted on social media platform X that the company will be going ahead with a separate delivery fleet for its upcoming “pure veg mode” but that both its regular and the “pure veg fleet” will be dressed in the same red. He added that the intent behind separating the fleets was to prevent the smell of spilt food from a rider’s previous orders from carrying over to a subsequent vegetarian meal.
The separate “pure veg fleet” will only deliver from “pure veg” restaurants which will now appear on the “pure veg mode” of the platform’s app.
While the dress code being rolled back was welcomed by a few union leaders, most expressed continuing concerns over the method by which delivery partners will be selected for the “pure veg fleet”. Many drivers have voiced concerns too about whether riders will be selected for this fleet from particular communities or whether riders who eat meat will be allowed to be part of this fleet at all. The Gig Workers’ Association in Delhi has also expressed concerns about how this might impact the earnings of some delivery partners disproportionately.
A Zomato spokesperson was unavailable to respond to detailed queries from The Hindu on how riders would be selected for this fleet and under what specific criteria.
But responding to some of the criticism that came Zomato’s way in the first few hours of the announcement, Mr. Goyal had on Tuesday night said, “Please note that participation in our veg delivery fleet will not discriminate on the basis of our delivery partner’s dietary preferences.”
Shaik Salauddin, national general secretary of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT) and the founder president of the Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union, said, “Taking back the dress code may be good. But the question still remains how the selection of drivers for the separate ‘pure veg fleet’ will work on the ground and this has to be clarified.”
Critics mainly argued that this concept of segregating delivery fleets was a slippery slope that could deepen the association between vegetarianism and “purity” that continues to exist in Indian society.
A.F. Mathew, a professor at IIM Kozhikode who lectures on contentious social issues to business students, has said that the “pure veg” feature appeared to be fuelled by caste motivations, positing that if the argument is taken to its logical conclusions, people would expect delivery partners of a particular religion or caste to deliver to them.
Mr. Salauddin had already pointed out that there have been instances where customers have asked for delivery partners of a particular community, prompting him to ask if such requests would also be accommodated now.
While rolling back the decision to visibly segregate the riders in the “pure veg fleet”, Mr. Goyal said, “This will ensure that our red uniform delivery partners are not incorrectly associated with non-veg food, and blocked by any RWAs [resident welfare associations] or societies during any special days… our riders’ physical safety is of paramount importance to us. We now realise that even some of our customers could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be a nice thing if that happened because of us.”
“We are always listening, without unnecessary ego, or pride. We look forward to continue serving you,” he added.
In a formal statement issued later in the evening, Mr. Salauddin thanked Mr. Goyal for his “responsiveness” but also asked that he take unions’ and workers’ opinions on board before implementing such measures. “Please do not play with the precious lives of delivery workers who are the backbone of Zomato,” Mr. Salauddin said.
The issue of separate spaces — and now delivery modes — for vegetarian food and meat has been a contentious one that has flared up in recent years. A separate area for vegetarians at IIT Bombay last year was followed by defiance from students who believed the accommodation — and the discomfort with meat that led to it — was prejudiced. One student who protested by eating meat on a vegetarian table was penalised with a ₹10,000 fine by the administration.
