Females in the delivery field
According to estimates provided in a story by The Times Of India, the number of women working in the delivery profession has increased dramatically since 2018. Around 10 lakh people work in the sector, with 67,900 of them being women, up from 40,000 in 2018.
As a result of Zomato‘s present ambitions, there will soon be no such thing as “delivery boys.” To increase the participation of girls in the profession by about 10%. The food service intends to achieve this goal by the end of the year. According to Zomato, there are currently none. Unit females make up 5% of its partners. The company intends to meet its goal of 10% participation by the end of 2021. Cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune are examples.
According to a spokesman, the number of women applying to be partners in both large and
small cities has increased. Bicycles are being made available for delivery to ladies who do not know how to ride a bike. Women choose careers in the industry for a variety of reasons, including flexibility and better pay parity.
Zomato and female delivery partners
“Today, we have a tendency to be taking our first steps toward expansion. The inclusion of female partners in our fleet. To begin, we have set a goal of obtaining 100 percent participation by the end of 2021, starting with Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune. Adding a large number of females to our fleet is not as simple as simply targeting a large number of females for this position. This is due to the fact that our policies need to be revised. In order to attract and keep a large number of female partners.” Deepinder Goyal, co-founder of the app, stated in his blog.
Reena Gupta, who started working at the company last year, told TOI that she “decided to give it a go” despite the “odd choice.” She joined the company after her husband was laid off from his job at a medical supply company. She not only has the ability to choose her own working hours, but she also makes up to Rs 6,000 each week – Reena delivers up to 20 orders per day.
Some additional steps
Zomato has taken a few steps to protect its female delivery partners. The corporation will hire the ladies for delivering food parcels and undergoing self-defense training. This might be made mandatory for all female delivery partners to attend. Other training is available as part of the company’s onboarding process. Every lady partner will be given a useful hygiene and safety pack.
To ensure the safety of order ladies delivery partners, they will make late evening deliveries contactless by default. For emergency situations, a 24-hour helpline will be established. The delivery partner can access the app’s Associate in Nursing SOS button, which if pressed. It can share the live location with on-the-ground organisations, central rider support, and other delivery partners in the area.
Zomato’s strategy
The app’s edifice partners have also acted to promote the company’s new strategy. Several restaurants can provide basic amenities like as separate restrooms for the ladies’ companions. It can feature these restaurants with a tackled the app to demonstrate their support for a just society. In addition to the current options, the lady partners will be able to grade restaurants based on “comfort and safety.” These ratings will be used to improve the working conditions of all of our partners.
“Hopefully, in the near future, people will not categorise this group as consisting of boys, and will view them for what they truly are: unit delivery partners,” Goyal writes on his blog. Gender no longer prevents people from pursuing opportunities. The future will be even brighter with more women and marginalised people in the workforce.
