‘Madam, I am gay’: Woman books Rapido Pink ride, gets male driver

She decided to cancel the booking, but said the app showed a Rs 15 cancellation fee for a ride that would have cost her around Rs 25. She also alleged that the profile picture visible on the app appeared to belong to a woman.

“And there is a man in front of me. Now this man has seen my face. He knows which building I live in. And I cannot even do anything,” she said.

Expressing her frustration over what she saw as a serious safety lapse, Chaturvedi said, “Female safety, women’s safety is just a profitable deal in this country. It’s a joke.”

“Apparently, being a woman is a premium priced experience, with no premium protection included. Pink tax, luxury pricing, and still no assurance of safety,” she added in the Reel’s caption.

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‘We’d like to investigate’

Rapido responded to the post and apologised for the experience.

“Bike Pink rides are specifically meant to be assigned to female captains, and we’d like to investigate how this ride was assigned to a male captain,” the company said.

Rapido also said it would look into the captain’s conduct and review the cancellation fee, noting that the charge should not have been applied in the circumstances described by Chaturvedi. The company asked her to share her mobile number and ride ID through direct message so it could investigate the complaint.

The creator later shared another update, saying Rapido initially told her that the captain would receive a warning and face stricter action if the issue happened again.

“Honestly, that was my biggest concern. A man had entered the Rapido Pink service by using the profile/photo of a female relative, and I did not think a mere warning was an appropriate response to something like this,” Chaturvedi said. “That made me far more furious than the money or anything else involved.”

She said she raised the issue with

According to Chaturvedi, Rapido also shared proof of the termination, which she described as a satisfactory resolution.

‘Zero accountability’

The incident prompted other users to question safety checks and accountability on ride-hailing platforms.

“Same happened with me, I booked a ride and the driver came with another vehicle, Fix this, your product guys are doing what??” one user wrote while tagging Rapido.

Another questioned the pricing of the service, writing, “Another point to add..why charge of pink ride is more than the normal scooty ride?”

“Aggregrator business model have zero accountability. The sooner people realize it, the better,” a third user commented.