one Indian Startup Swish in 10 minutes Food delivered promises to do, has sparked a debate on social media regarding the labor rights of gig workers (temporary employees) in the country.
In a post on X on August 4, Ujwal Sukhija, the startup’s founder, explained how and why he came up with the idea for ‘Swish?
He said: ‘When it comes to online food delivery, the wait can be very painful. We realize that this problem is common to many youngsters like us, so for them (and us), we are making ‘Swish’.
‘What is swish? An app that delivers food in 10 minutes. We take care of technology, food and delivery so that we can minimize the delivery time for you.’
The app is currently active only in the Hosur Sarjapura Road layout, a posh suburb spread over 1500 acres in Bangalore, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka.
Some people responded to the post after using the app. Many people raised questions about the quality of the food and the business model that would burden the delivery people.
One user commented that ‘(with this innovation) poor workers working in kitchens and on motorbikes are being oppressed more than ever before.’
Another wrote: ‘I personally would hate to be a part of a society that requires people to do hard and painful work for low wages to put food on the table in 10 minutes.
The Independent has contacted Swish for comment.
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A national survey of over 10,000 gig workers in eight cities including Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad revealed that 34 percent of delivery workers earn less than INR 10,000 per month.
The survey was conducted by the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers with the help of University of Pennsylvania and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung India. The survey also found that 41.5 percent of delivery workers experienced ‘some form of violence’ at work and 78 percent said they worked more than 10 hours a day.
In 2022, food delivery company Zumito faced criticism when it announced that it would try to reduce delivery times by 10 minutes.
Along with criticism on social media, Indian lawmaker Karthi P. Chidambaram raised the issue in the Indian Parliament and demanded that a set of rules and regulations be drawn up for delivery companies and ensure delivery agents are protected from unrealistic targets. go
In the case of Swish, commenters also asked how food quality and cleanliness would be maintained.
In April this year, a 10-year-old girl died after eating her birthday cake, which was ordered through the Zumito app. The cake was reportedly not from the bakery, from where the family ordered it, but from a cloud kitchen.
As the online food delivery trend continues to grow in India, cloud kitchens are also proliferating. Most of them operate with very little infrastructure.
Swish responded to some customers on X, who said their order arrived in 15 minutes, and said they would improve performance and deliver their food in 10 minutes as promised.
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2024-08-10 18:59:46
