Fast delivery services are taking over India – but at what cost for workers?

In a shaded alley behind a Blinkit warehouse in Varanasi city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the summer heat clings to polyester uniforms like a second skin. The midday sun is relentless, but the fast grocery delivery company’s striking riders, exhausted, underpaid and drenched in sweat, say what really burns is the indignity of it all. Their demand for better conditions, though modest, spotlight a broader crisis unfolding in India’s growing gig economy, where speed trumps safety and workers are easily replaced.

“This uniform is made of a polyester cloth, it is impossible to be comfortable wearing it in summer,” a rider, who requests not to be named for fear of losing work, tells The Independent. “If the company at least provides us cotton uniforms, it will make our lives a lot easier.”

The rider is one of over 150 Blinkit workers who went on a two-day strike in Varanasi on 26 April to protest what they describe as unsafe working conditions, falling earnings, and retaliatory ID suspensions, a practice where gig platforms deactivate the accounts of their workers without due process or a means to redressal.

The strike is only the latest flashpoint in a growing struggle between speed-driven platforms and workers who make instant delivery possible in a gig economy that’s projected by NITI Aayog, a government planning and advisory body, to employ over 23 million people nationally by 2029.

Blinkit riders say they once received Rs 555 (£4.93) for delivering 32 orders but now earn only Rs 448 (£3.98) for 43, effectively doing more work for less.

Gig workers, unlike salaried employees, are classified as “partners” by their companies, so they receive no fixed wages, social security, or paid leave. They are instead compensated on a per-order basis, with fluctuating incentives. Blinkit riders say they were initially promised Rs 35 (£0.31) per delivery within a 2.5km radius, plus a distance-based component as well as bonuses for completing a certain number of orders. But the terms have been quietly changed over time. The per-delivery rate has dropped to ₹26 (£0.23), they say, and the distance payment only accounts for the journey to the customer, not the return trip.

“This wage reduction while the company’s service and profits have increased is a sheer violation of human rights and exploitation,” says a 45-year-old father of five who works as a delivery rider for the company.

When Blinkit, acquired by Indian food delivery giant Zomato in 2022, launched in his area almost six months ago, the rider recalls, the promise of higher earnings lured many away from other jobs. “But as the number of riders grew, the incentives started shrinking.”

A 25-year-old rider, who delivered milk before turning to gig platforms after the Covid pandemic, says he works between 12 and 15 hours a day for Rs 300 (£2.66), most of it consumed by petrol and bike maintenance.

The rider, who has a polytechnic diploma, describes his low-paid work as being “tantamount to forced labour”.

While gig work in India has always been precarious, the searing summer heat is exposing its most brutal edge. Northern India in particular is experiencing an early and intense heatwave, with temperatures soaring above 40C in many cities, including the capital Delhi, and the meteorological department forecasting above-normal temperatures and an increased number of heatwave days in May.

The day after the strike began, Varanasi recorded a maximum temperature of 44.2C.

In spite of the extreme heat, delivery workers say they are required to clock in during the hottest hours of the day, without meaningful protection.

“Sometimes the housing societies we deliver to tell us we aren’t allowed to use the lift for residents,” the Varanasi rider who participated in the strike tells The Independent. “Sometimes we aren’t allowed to use the lift at all. Then we have to climb up and down the stairs with all the heavy orders. The store is on the first floor, so we are climbing at least one flight of stairs per order, just to collect the items for delivery. And we do not get compensated adequately for this extra physical work.”

Instead, when the Varanasi riders launched their strike, Blinkit responded by disabling the app accounts of all participants, cutting them off from the platform and their sole source of income, the Gig and Platform Service Workers Union claims.

A company representative allegedly visited the striking workers and threatened them with police action unless they signed affidavits promising never to strike again.

In the following days, the accounts of some of the workers were reinstated but only after they had signed contracts that did not carry the company letterhead or specific details, Deccan Herald reported. One of the riders The Independent spoke to confirmed this and said some were also asked to record videos of themselves holding the unsigned documents and stating that they would comply with the terms.

The riders have straightforward demands. They want weather-appropriate uniforms and shaded waiting areas with water and fans so they aren’t baking in the sun. They insist the company restore the original incentive pay structure that was in place when the store opened​ and rescind the punishing rule that effectively forces them to work the hottest hours of the day.

The union says the term “partner” that gig platforms employ for their delivery riders is a misnomer, disguising the lack of job security, legal protections or fair wages.

A rider complains that a single customer complaint, even one made in error, can lead to immediate ID blocking, with no right of appeal.

“We live at the company’s will,” the delivery person says. “If a customer abuses us, we must stay quiet. If we say something back, they complain. Then our ID is gone. There is no redressal system.”

Blinkit declined to comment prior to publication despite repeated requests from The Independent. A spokesperson said they would be in touch “if and when we have a statement to share”.

The Varanasi strike isn’t Blinkit’s first labour protest. In January 2024, riders at a Delhi warehouse walked out in protest of incentive cuts and were reportedly met with threats and physical intimidation.

Analysts say these tensions will only escalate unless companies are mandated to treat gig workers as their employees. Most delivery riders currently fall outside India’s formal labour protections, leaving them without social security, medical benefits or minimum wage guarantees.

In the meantime, many workers endure the conditions in silence because the alternative is joblessness.

“There is so much unemployment in the country,” one rider laments. “The company doesn’t even have to advertise positions, people are waiting on the sidelines for vacancies to open up. So, we keep quiet and work for the little pay we get.”