'Please only allow a Hindu delivery person': Swiggy customer's instruction goes viral
Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU) founder and president Shaik Salauddin took to Twitter and shared the image. "We demand that strict action be taken against such bigotry. Swiggy has the business on the backs of workers and it's their minimum duty to ensure their safety and dignity at work," he said.
By Amrutha Kosuru Published on 13 Oct 2022 1:41 PM GMT
Hyderabad: An instruction left by a customer for a Swiggy delivery agent has once again reignited the debate over involving religion with food. A screenshot from Ahmedabad, Gujarat where a Swiggy customer requested a "Hindu person" to deliver the food has gone viral.
"Please only allow a Hindu delivery person for my delivery," the customer had requested. The same request was typed twice.
Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU) founder and president Shaik Salauddin took to Twitter and shared the image. "We demand that strict action be taken against such bigotry. Swiggy has the business on the backs of workers and it's their minimum duty to ensure their safety and dignity at work," he said.
Swiggy has not officially responded to the post at the moment.
Salauddin said, "All platform companies must put mechanisms in place to safeguard workers who belong to disadvantaged groups (e.g. women, religious minorities, etc.) from the issues they commonly face at work."
He said that Swiggy should come out and give a public statement saying it does not encourage such bigotry.
A Swiggy spokesperson, in conversation with NewsMeter, said such requests are not encouraged or taken into consideration. "Swiggy assigns delivery persons based on availability and their caste or religion does not matter at all," the spokesperson said.
Not the first incident
Sadly, this is not the first such incident.
A similar incident took place in Hyderabad on 30 August 2022 where a customer requested "Don't want a Muslim delivery person."
Earlier, another Swiggy customer in Hyderabad had written, "Very less spicy. And, please select a Hindu delivery person. All ratings will be based on this."
Another food delivery company, Zomato, had also faced a similar customer.
At that time, CEO and founder of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal, had tweeted, "We are proud of the idea of India – and the diversity of our esteemed customers and partners. We aren't sorry to lose any business that comes in the way of our values."
