At the time when people are ordering online due to COVID-19, I and many visually challenged are unable to do so. You must be wondering why it is so? Because, Swiggy, one of the major food aggregator in India is not accessible with screen readers in Android. Visually challenged people rely on screen readers to access phones and their applications, at the time when big tech companies like Google and Facebook are making their platforms accessible with screen readers, Swiggy is going towards more and more inaccessible interface. The screen reader reads the things which are on screen. for example in Swiggy, on the first screen, the list of restaurants is shown but, they can't be read. Even while rating we are unable to rate due to some issue with its interface which is not compatible with screen reader.  Ordering online has given some sort of independence to those living alone especially in the time of a pandemic when going out is a huge risk. But Swiggy chose to take away this freedom. At the time of the pandemic, when people are ordering food online, but many visually challenged who had the smartphones and could afford to order food online, couldn't because of big business like Swiggy chose to ignore us.    What I want is that Swiggy should make their application accessible with screen readers, practice inclusivity in implementation, give word descriptions to images, or make their application less graphical. Sign and Share my petition in large numbers and take one step at a time to make this world accessible.

I opened my door and saw the delivery boy drenched, his raincoat muddy. He handed me my order, and started limping towards the stairs. I asked him what was wrong, so he told me he had been in a minor accident. The reason? He was speeding to deliver my order in under 10 minutes.  Sign my petition to ask our food and grocery delivery startups to give up their need for speed. Click here to share this petition on Twitter. I don’t need to name the company that puts such a strict time restriction on their delivery partners. And I don’t want to, because by naming one, I’ll probably exonerate the others. But the truth is that Swiggy’s Instamart, Dunzo, Zepto, Blinkit, all are competing to deliver our orders in 10-20 minutes. I’ve never understood this ‘need for speed’ among India’s food and grocery delivery startups.  To me, this was never a need of the consumer. Everyone was doing just fine by getting their groceries delivered in bulk in a day or two, or buying them from their neighbourhood Kirana store. But India’s growing consumerism has coincided with an increasing penchant for techno-solutionism among both the state and society. Regrettably, our adoption of technology lacks empathy. So delivering my order of coke and cigarettes in under 10 minutes assumes more importance than the safety of the delivery worker.  After this incident, I started researching a bit more about incidents of food delivery workers getting injured while on the job. Several such instances have been documented in media reports, here, here and here. But food delivery startups claim that these are rare occurrences. They also claim that they don’t penalise the drivers if the latter fail to deliver within the stipulated time. But it means that the driver will lose out on his daily or weekly bonus for completing a certain number of deliveries within the peak hours. Isn’t that penalisation enough?  To me, it seems that these 'quick commerce' startups have gamified the working day of a food delivery worker. They aren't increasing the base pay, which is the minimum payout per order, for their delivery workers. It remains paltry at around Rs 20-30. So the only way a food delivery worker can increase their daily earnings, is by getting their hand on the daily incentive or bonus. They'll get this bonus, if they complete a certain number of deliveries during the peak hours; ergo, by driving fast.  Tragically, consumers like us couldn’t care less about our food delivery workers. How many of us take care to thank the delivery person or pay them a tip? I happened to talk to the delivery boy who showed up at my doorstep because I had noticed his limp. Most of them hide their scars and race again for the next order! I can wait for my order of groceries. I don’t need it in 10 minutes! If the delivery partner can make it, great! But I don’t want the food delivery app to promise me 10-minute deliveries. I don’t want someone to risk their life by driving fast, all for delivering my junk food. The 10-minute delivery option should only persist for medicines and NOTHING ELSE! Sign my petition to ask Swiggy's Instamart, Dunzo, Blinkit and Zepto to give up their promises of deliveries in 10-20 minutes. These promises should not be a part of the brand marketing of these companies. And it should certainly not be a sword hanging over our delivery workers. #ICanWaitForMyGroceries Image credits: Quartz

Above 3000 delivery executive/partners are holding peaceful strikes and bike rallies. The IFAT (Indian Federation of App-based Transport) given full support to the delivery executives.  Grievance Reduced earning structure from 35 to 15. Introduced batch orders, due to which they have multiple stops and batch orders will not be counted as daily targets. Removal of performance based in incentives. Lack of sufficient compensation viz wait time pay, long distance pay and long distance return pay. Demands In current scenario of high prices of every thing they had to increase the pay. Pay per order should be 35. Distance based earning. Daily incentives which should covers wait time, surge, rain, late night orders and customer fines. Stop distribution of orders towards third parties i.e Shadowfax and Rapido. Our demands are our rights. Hyderabad Swiggy Executives/Partners.

Goal To mandate the use of biodegradable packaging for e-commerce and reduce the use of harmful plastics. Overview We all use plastics on a regular basis. With digital technologies supporting excessive and easy consumption of goods and services. Our plastic use has exponentially increased. Businesses that enable this behaviour should be conscious of the environmental impact and drive sustainability across vendors, restaurants , meat and vegetable shops , e-commerce giants and so many more are enabling this problem. As human beings , we are designed to consume . When we consume more than we are entitled and faster than ever, things seem to go out of control. You will be alarmed by the amount of garbage one person can generate because of their habits and practices we follow and the businesses we support as consumers.  A single person can generate upto 2 Large bags of dry waste. Imagine the scale when each household in India ranges form 2-4 people on average.We are already experiencing destructive change and as history suggests, India is never prepared and we are not conscious about our surroundings & environment. Therefore as one citizen to another , I humbly request you to ponder on this problem and request all business to use sustainable packaging and prevent further depletion of our home. https://www.cseindia.org/plastic-waste-is-india-s-and-the-world-s-most-formidable-environmental-challenge-10375 The scale of our country acts against us in this matter , I am sure none of us want live in a toxic environment or want our children to be affected with more diseases, deaths and illnesses than what it already is… Please do the right thing !  Thank You �    

A lot of restaurants in India are not at all concerned about the waste water management and the growing scarcity of water makes this all alarming. If people are made aware through Food based applications about the problem then may be people can take a conscience decision before ordering food. If this can push restaurants to be more responsible towards society and environment then a sustainable step can be achieved. Swiggy and Zomato the leading food delivery applications can take this initiative. A lot of common people are unaware about the issue and this petition can be targeted to reach the concerned applications and through them the awareness can be spread and a Change can be made.