In a blogpost, Swiggy said that it had added its first female delivery partner in Pune in 2016 and since then, it has been building inclusivity and diversity across the platform with a commitment to increase the number of female delivery partners in Swiggy’s delivery fleet. trying to do. .
“In order to bring about the necessary change, we make sure to stay abreast of the challenges our female delivery partners are facing, especially with regards to access and safety. Creating an environment that encourages women to consider delivering with Swiggy. and here are some of our recent efforts in that direction,” it added.
Swiggy has over 200,000 delivery partners and about 1,000 of them are female delivery partners.
Talking about the time-off policy, Swiggy said that discomfort from being outside and on the road during menstruation is probably one of the least reported reasons why many women do not consider delivery a viable gig .
“To support them through any challenges related to menstruation, we have introduced, without question, a two-day Paid once in monthly payment Period time-off policy for all our regular female delivery partners. This industry-first initiative gives our female DEs the option to voluntarily take time off during their menstrual period and be eligible for guaranteed minimum earnings during that time.”
In addition, Swiggy has worked with restaurant partners in Cochin and other large cities to expand easy access to clean and safe public restrooms for women delivery partners.
Recently, it has partnered with Shell to provide its delivery partners with access to restrooms at all its petrol stations in the country.
The company highlighted that many women interested in onboarding with Swiggy either do not have access to private motor vehicles or do not have a driving license.
“We are addressing this issue in two ways. First, assuring them that delivery by bicycle is a viable option for short-distance orders. In fact, 22 percent of our female delivery partners deliver on cycles. Second, We are also working with Electric Mobility Partners to facilitate rental of EV cycles and bikes (less than 25 kmph).” On the security aspect, Swiggy said that the safety of its distribution partners is of utmost importance.
“Measures such as a ‘safe zone’ for female delivery partners and limiting delivery times to 6 pm were implemented. However, we felt this move limits true inclusivity, while giving female partners the most attractive slots We’re changing this by improving our safety procedures.”
Swiggy said that starting with Bengaluru, where it has the largest number of female delivery partners, it is opening up dinner slot delivery.
“It will be expanded to other cities once our partners complete the training there. Some of the measures we have in place include robust virtual safety training modules that support situational training, Swiggy SOS-emergency support usage guidelines, and critical safety dos and don’ts. ,” it said.
Both female and male delivery partners have the option of rejecting the delivery if they deem an area to be unsafe – no question, no dissatisfaction. We are spending time communicating this consistently so that partners know that their safety is our top priority, it added.
Swiggy has also provided an SOS service on the delivery partner app that instantly connects one to the Swiggy helpline, local police or ambulance in case of a medical emergency. PTI SR SHW SHW