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Amrit Dhillon

Every once in a while, the head of India’s leading food delivery platform dons the company’s signature red jacket and bag to gain a first-hand insight into the experiences of his delivery agents.
Recently, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal took this initiative to Ambience Mall, a bustling shopping centre in New Delhi, where he attempted to deliver a “pretend” package.
His experience was eye-opening. A security guard stopped him from taking the lift to the third floor, pointing him to the stairs instead.
Frustrated, Goyal shared his thoughts on Instagram on October 6, calling for Indian shopping centres to treat delivery agents more humanely.












View this post on Instagram























A post shared by Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal)



His post, which included a video of his experience, sparked a wave of complaints from workers across various companies, highlighting widespread discriminatory treatment not only in shopping centres but also in gated communities.
Goyal declined to be interviewed by This Week in Asia for this article.
Nilesh Kumar, a 28-year-old Amazon employee, recounted his own ordeal at the Saya housing complex in Ghaziabad, just outside Delhi.
“I was waiting by the lift, and when it came down, others told me I couldn’t use it,” he said. “I had to walk up to the fourth floor with a heavy bag.”
Gig workers have joined domestic helpers, cooks, nannies and drivers in suffering what many describe as second-class treatment by middle-class Indians, who like the services they provide but do not care to share the same spaces.
Some gated communities have implemented policies that segregate service workers. The Indian Express newspaper reported that DLF Hamilton Court in Gurgaon displays signs such as “staff and service lift” and “residents and guests only” in its lobby. Public amenities like lawns are off-limits, and workers are discouraged from resting on park benches, the report noted.
Anoushka Verma, a 40-year-old resident of the Eldeco complex in Noida, expressed her disbelief: “I can’t understand the logic,” she said, noting that people allow service workers “to clean and cook in their homes, but they aren’t good enough to sit on a park bench when they might be tired? More than cruel, it’s just stupid.”
Government estimates indicate that India has nearly 8 million gig workers, a number projected to soar past 23 million by 2029-30. The work is gruelling – poorly paid, tiring, and lacking security.

“What the rich are doing is walling themselves off in their ‘citadels’ from the real India, from the ordinary people outside who are trying to earn a living,” said trade unionist A. K. Padmanabhan, vice-president of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions.
Nonetheless, their experience is slightly less painful than that of domestic workers, said social activist Ramendra Kumar who is general secretary of the Delhi Shramik Sangathan, a federation of unorganised workers.
Kumar says gig workers are slightly better treated because, while they may be excluded from public spaces, they do not have to enter homes and this spares them the worst humiliations.
“What older Indians do immediately on meeting a maid, cook or cleaner is to ask their name. That tells them instantly both their caste and religion so that Hindus can then exclude certain people, from, say, working in the kitchen because of caste purity” Kumar said.
“India is the most stratified and divided society in the world and even new areas of the economy, such as gig workers, are not exempt from the old attitudes that affect traditional workers like maids and cooks which divide us Indians.”
“These people want gig workers to deliver what they want but don’t want to see them or hear them.”
In Delhi’s New Friends Colony, a notice posted in the neighbourhood bans cycle rickshaws, claiming they “lower” the tone of the area’s leafy streets.
Noor Khan, a 26-year-old delivery agent for Blinkit, a grocery delivery service, said he was made to feel “like a thief” working in gated communities:
“First, the guard at the gates wants to know where I’m going,” he said. “Then the guard in the lobby area tells me to use the stairs, not the lift. They make me feel as though they’re doing me a favour by letting me in when I’m delivering a service to the customer.”
Khan recalled wanting to rest in a shopping centre filled with benches but was always asked to leave by the guards. Once, after a tiring delivery, he sat on the stairs of a gated complex, only to be told by a resident to stand up because he made the place “look scruffy”.
In response to Goyal’s post, Ambience Mall announced plans to create a designated pickup point for all delivery agents.
However, many social media users criticised this solution. “Everyone should be able to use the same lifts and entrances. There should be no divide,” wrote one.


Rajiv Sharma, president of a neighbourhood association in Okhla, believes that effective leadership can combat discrimination.
He said he has faced similar challenges in his role leading one of the many organisations all over Delhi that manage residents’ affairs.
“If you put your foot down against discrimination and make it clear that discrimination is outlawed and if you stick to your guns, people will fall in line,” he said.
“Then, once you have critical mass, it becomes easier. Our society is so hierarchical that not even lifts are out of bounds.”
*Some workers’ names have been changed at their request


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By the end of the decade, India is projected to have over 23 million gig workers – who report facing humiliation and exclusion at every turn


By the end of the decade, India is projected to have over 23 million gig workers – who report facing humiliation and exclusion at every turn.


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