One of India's largest food delivery companies has been forced to reverse its decision to have drivers delivering “purely vegetarian” food wear green T-shirts for fear of discrimination and attacks from food vigilantes.
Food delivery app Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal announced the company's intention to launch a “pure veg fleet” – which will deliver vegetarian food only to restaurants that do not cook eggs, fish or meat – in a post on X/Twitter on Tuesday.
His post was accompanied by photographs of Zomato agents delivering food wearing green t-shirts instead of the usual red ones. They were also seen carrying green bags instead of the red ones from Zomato.
But on Wednesday, Goyal said in an update that Zomato decided to desegregate “on the ground” after several people on social media pointed out how the colors could potentially be used to target people who ate meat.
Some expressed concern that delivery staff, some of whom come from religious and caste minorities, could be targeted by owners and residents of majority-vegetarian building complexes.
“Although we will continue to have a fleet for vegetarians, we have decided to eliminate segregation on land… This [all delivery executives wearing red] will ensure that our red uniform delivery partners are not wrongly associated with non-veg food and blocked by RWA or society during special days…the physical safety of our passengers is of utmost importance to us.
“We now realize that even some of our customers might have problems with their landlords, and that would not be good if that happened because of us,” Goyal said.
In this photo taken on December 24, 2018, an Indian delivery boy working with the food delivery app Zomato sits on his bicycle in a shopping district in Mumbai.
(AFP via Getty Images)
He explained the need for a separate fleet to serve people who are put off by the “smell” of foods containing eggs, fish or meat.
“Because despite everyone's best efforts, sometimes food spills in delivery boxes. In those cases, the smell from the previous order travels to the next order and can cause the next order to smell like the previous order. For this reason, we had to separate the fleet for vegetable orders,” he said in a post on X.
Users noted that such a fleet, which “will only serve orders from these pure veg restaurants” and will ensure that “even a vegetarian meal served at a non-veg restaurant will never fit into the green delivery box meant for our pure veg” . fleet”, will serve to reinforce caste beliefs in a country as diverse as India, where eating habits vary far and wide.
Meat eaters and sellers – especially Muslims – have been attacked in the past by a section of right-wing Hindu vigilantes pushing a vegetarian agenda. Beef is banned in several Indian states because cattle are considered sacred in Hinduism.
Goyal stated in his original X post that “India has the highest percentage of vegetarians in the world.” This is mainly because Hinduism is a predominant religion; However, not all Hindus are vegetarians. In fact, a 2021 survey by the Pew Research Center stated that only 39 percent of Indian adults describe themselves as “vegetarians.”
However, Mr. Goyal clarified that “Pure Veg Mode or Pure Veg Fleet does not serve or alienate any religious or political preferences.”
Sheikh Salauddin, president of the Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT), India's largest platform-based drivers' union, said: “The last time someone at Zomato asked for a delivery partner from a religion in particular, Mr. Goyal said 'food has no religion'. Today he seems to have returned to this. I ask you directly: are you now going to classify your delivery colleagues according to caste, community and religion?
In June last year, Zomato apologized after running an ad campaign showing a Dalit character from the Hindi film Lagaan being “recycled” and used as various inanimate objects, but ultimately said the “noble intention” behind the ad was “twisted in such a way.” a lot by certain sectors of the media giving it a color that we do not even remotely conceive.” Dalits are at the bottom of India's rigid caste hierarchy.
The independent has contacted Zomato for comment.
