Food delivery company Zomato on Wednesday rolled back green uniforms for riders delivering ‘pure vegetarian’ food after the controversial plan sparked a backlash online.
The plan was criticized by many who said it could reinforce caste norms.
Others expressed concern over the possibility of Zomato’s regular fleet facing restrictions from certain societies and RWAs.
“While we will continue to have a fleet for vegetarians, we have decided to remove the ground segregation of this fleet on the ground by using the color green. All our riders – both our regular fleet and our vegetarian fleet, will wear the color red,” Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal said in a post on social media platform
Goyal added that the change would mean that the fleet meant for vegetarian orders would not be identifiable on the ground. However, the Zomato app will show that vegetarian orders are served by the ‘veg only’ fleet.
“This will ensure that our delivery partners in red uniforms are not wrongly associated with non-vegetarian food and blocked by RWAs or associations during special days,” he wrote.
Goyal on Tuesday announced the launch of ‘Pure Veg Mode’ along with a ‘Pure Veg Fleet’ for customers who have a 100 percent vegetarian preference.
The offering consists of a collection of restaurants that serve only pure vegetarian food, excluding all restaurants that serve non-vegetarian items.
Shaik Salauddin, founder and president of Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union, said in a note: “Our question to Deepinder ji on Zomato’s ‘Pure Veg Fleet’ announcement: Will Zomato now also filter out delivery drivers who are vegetarian, just to this fleet to be operated? In the future, will we also take customer feedback into account about who can deliver their food and who cannot?”
“The physical safety of our riders is of the utmost importance to us. We now realize that even some of our customers can get into trouble with their landlords, and it wouldn’t be nice if that happened because of us,” Goyal said.
In response to the comments, he clarified that the pure vegetable fleet “does not serve or alienate any religious or political preference.”
According to Goyal, the new green fleet was introduced “because despite everyone’s efforts, sometimes the food ends up in the delivery boxes. In those cases, the odor from the previous order travels to the next order, and can cause the next order to smell like the previous order.”
Meanwhile, Swiggy has clarified that an alleged advertisement featuring Zomato’s ‘pure veg fleet’ circulating on social media and carrying its name was fake.
First print: March 20, 2024 | 10:06 PM IST
