Zomato has said it has set itself a goal to significantly increase the participation of women in its fleet of delivery partners by the end of this year. Company CEO Deepinder Goyal said in a tweet on Friday, June 25 that women comprise less than 0.5 percent of Zomato’s current fleet of delivery partners and that “needs to change” to make the food delivery service company a more inclusive workplace. Initially, the company plans to increase women participation in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. Zomato acknowledged that the plan is not as simple as just “targeting more women” but it will have to change its policies to attract and retain them in this job.
Starting today, we are making it our goal to increase women delivery partner participation in our fleet. Currently, there are less than ~0.5% women delivery partners in our fleet and this needs to change.
Here’s what we plan to do about it: https://t.co/NKOJXUw1r4 pic.twitter.com/f1jJoUIOin
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) June 25, 2021
Goyal hoped people would soon stop generalising “this community as delivery boys”.
Hopefully, in the near future, people won’t generalize this community as ‘delivery boys’ and see them for what they truly are – delivery partners.
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) June 25, 2021
The company said, in a statement, that it is launching four key initiatives to achieve a goal of 10 percent women participation in the three pilot cities. The initiatives will be aimed at:
Access to safety-related education and tools. Zomato will provide self-defence training to new recruits and it will be mandatory for all women delivery partners to attend. Women will also be given a first-aid kit and a handy hygiene and safety kit.
Contactless deliveries by default. For women delivery partners, the company has decided to make late-evening deliveries contactless by default.
Extended support from our restaurant partners. It said restaurants have come forward to ensure access to basic facilities such as separate washrooms for the women employees. Zomato plans to highlight these partner restaurants on its app.
SOS button and dedicated support. Finally, the company will be setting up a 24×7 dedicated helpline to expedite emergency requests. Once a woman employee triggers the SOS button, her live location will be shared with other on-ground teams and delivery partners in the vicinity.
Twitter users appear to have appreciated the idea, with nearly 6,000 of them hitting the “like” button on Goyal’s tweet so far and many others commenting to support it.
Fantastic to see this!
— Divya Puri (@Divyapuri28) June 25, 2021
Safety of women delivery partners being the biggest concern, one person asked Zomato to test the SOS system in areas with poor network coverage like basements.
Please test the SOS function on poor/minimal cell coverage areas. Basements would be a good test case too. This feature is the most important one for female delivery partner growth.
— Samrat ???????????????? (@SamratNM) June 25, 2021
Zomato’s customer support service thanked the Twitter user for bringing the issue to its notice.
Hi Samrat, thank you for bringing this matter to our notice. Your feedback is duly noted, and we’ll certainly work to improve our services based on the same.
— zomato care (@zomatocare) June 25, 2021
Goyal, too, has asked people to send their feedback directly to him at [email protected].
Zomato was launched in 2010 as an online platform connecting restaurants with customers through its app, website, and delivery partners.
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