Food delivery platform Zomato on March 19 launched a “pure veg” delivery fleet that would deliver orders from restaurants that do not serve meat, fish or egg-based dishes. The fleet’s personnel are shown in promotional images wearing green uniforms and with green boxes on their bikes, and the company will not assign “pure veg” delivery partners to any orders from restaurants where food is not exclusively vegetarian.
While some vegetarian users welcomed the announcement on social media whole-heartedly, it immediately sparked backlash from app-based workers’ unions, activists, and academics, who have argued that the move will invariably translate into harassment of and violence against ground-level delivery partners, most of whom are from minority religious backgrounds or from oppressed caste backgrounds.
