An Indian startup that promises to deliver takeout food in 10 minutes has sparked a social media debate about labour rights of gig workers in the country.
In an X post on 4 August, founder Ujjwal Sukheja explained how and why he came up with the idea for Swish.
“When it comes to online food delivery, the wait can be painfully long. We realised that this problem is common to many young people like us. So, for them (and us), we are building Swish,” he said. “What’s Swish? A 10-minute food delivery app. We take care of tech, food, and delivery so we can minimise the delivery time for you.”
The app is currently active only in Hosur Sarjapura Road Layout, an upscale suburb spread out over 1,500 acres in Bengaluru, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka.
While some people responded to the post after trying the app, many raised questions about the food quality as well as the strain the business model would put on delivery workers.
“The innovation: screw over poor workers in kitchens and on bikes worse than ever before,” one user remarked.
“I would personally find it sinister to partake in a society that demands food on the table in ten minutes at the cost of hamsterwheeling an underclass,” posted another.
The Independent has reached out to Swish for comment.
A national survey of over 10,000 gig workers in eight cities, including Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, has revealed that 34 per cent of delivery persons earn under Rs 10,000 (£93) a month.
The survey, conducted by the Indian Federation of App Based Transport Workers with support from the University of Pennsylvania in the US and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung India , showed that 41.5 per cent delivery people faced “some form of violence” at work and 78 per cent said they worked more than 10 hours a day.
In 2022, food delivery giant Zomato faced backlash after announcing that it would try and reduce delivery time to 10 minutes.
Along with criticism on social media, Indian lawmaker Karti P Chidambaram took the matter up in the Indian parliament, demanding a set of guidelines to regulate delivery companies and ensure protection for delivery agents against unrealistic targets.
In the case of Swish, commentators also asked how the quality and hygiene of the food would be maintained.
In April this year, a 10-year-old girl died after eating her birthday cake ordered on Zomato . The cake reportedly wasn’t from the bakery the family had ordered it from but a cloud kitchen.
As online food delivery has picked up in India, cloud kitchens have mushroomed. Most of them operate with minimal infrastructure.
Swish responded on X to some customers who said their order was delivered in 15 minutes, saying it would do better and deliver their food in the promised 10 minutes.
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