Zomato scraps green uniform plan for ‘pure veg’ deliveries after backlash

Zomato said it was rolling back the plan so that its delivery workers “are not incorrectly associated with non-veg food, and blocked by any RWAs (resident welfare associations) or societies during any special days”.

“We now realise that even some of our customers could get into trouble with their landlords, and that would not be a nice thing if that happened because of us,” said CEO and co-founder Deepinder Goyal, who just a day back had claimed an “overwhelmingly positive” response to the plan for a segregated delivery fleet.

Unlike in the West, where vegetarianism and veganism are seen as lifestyle choices, food choice in India is closely tied to caste and has long been a political issue.

Update on our pure veg fleet —

While we are going to continue to have a fleet for vegetarians, we have decided to remove the on-ground segregation of this fleet on the ground using the colour green. All our riders — both our regular fleet, and our fleet for vegetarians, will…

— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) March 20, 2024

Delivery workers in India — many of whom come from low-income groups — already have separate entrances for a number of restaurants, are not allowed to use restrooms in many of them and are often barred from accessing the same lifts in apartment complexes as residents.

Apart from the added differentiation of delivery workers, the colour-coding move also received backlash over fears that residents ordering non-vegetarian food in certain complexes could face hostility from housing societies, a number of which already prohibit the consumption of non-vegetarian food.

Sheikh Salauddin, President of Indian Federation of App-Based Transport Workers (IFAT), the largest platform-based drivers’ union in India, said: “The last time someone on Zomato requested for a delivery partner of a particular religion, Goyal said ‘food has no religion’. Today, he seems to have gone back on this. Is he now going to categorise delivery partners on the lines of caste, community and religion?”

This is not the first time Zomato has stumbled on the issue of caste. Last year, it apologised for an advertisement that showed a Dalit character from the film Lagaan being “recycled” and used as inanimate objects. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) had also issued a notice to the company.

While making the initial announcement, Goyal had said that Zomato would not discriminate on the basis of a “pure veg” delivery partner’s own dietary preferences. He said the company would “work with” any housing societies that may disallow regular Zomato riders.

The idea of segregation of food items has been a contentious one in the country. Last year, IIT Bombay introduced separate dining spaces for students eating vegetarian food, a move which was protested by other students who felt it was discriminatory.