One Year of Lockdown: How these delivery personnel survived the pandemic

Photo for representational purpose

The COVID-19 induced lockdown in 2020 shut most business establishments, including eateries as people were afraid of venturing out to grab a bite. While the restaurants struggled to stay afloat, food delivery apps such as Zomato and Swiggy were serving thousands of customers in Mumbai. The lockdown evoked mixed response from the delivery staff, while some delivery executives returned to their hometowns despite facing financial difficulties, others stayed back and made deliveries amidst the threat of the virus.

Mid-Day online spoke to few delivery executives from Swiggy and Zomato and asked them about how they survived the lockdown.

‘My earnings dropped by 50 per cent'

Arun P Kumar. Pic/Kartik Bhardwaj

Arun P Kumar, 24, has been working as a Swiggy delivery partner in Mumbai for the past two years. The Khar resident decided not to go back to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur and kept on making deliveries even as the cases were mounting.

"As people were wary of eating from outside our orders decreased. Earlier I used to earn about Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 a week which dropped to Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000," said Kumar.

Apart from the decline in earnings, making deliveries during the lockdown was difficult amid the looming threat of contacting the virus, Kumar said. " The police stopped me too but let go after realising I was making deliveries. Housing societies were a bit wary and I had to leave the order downstairs. There were temperature checks too at many apartments. All this while, I was scared of getting infected too," added the delivery executive.

‘I resumed work and suffered paralysis while on duty'

Ganesh Parab, 30, worked as a Zomato food delivery partner. When the lockdown was implemented on March 22, 2020, he decided to take a break and stayed at home, which he shares with her mother, who works in the private sector. Once the situation eased, he resumed work but suffered a paralytic attack while on duty and was left bed-ridden.

"On June 1, I was out making deliveries. Suddenly I felt sick and stopped my motorcycle. I had convulsions in my body. I left the bike there and took an auto back to my home in Chembur. The doctors said I had suffered partial paralysis. I am getting treated but most of our money went in paying hospital bills," he said.

‘Company froze my id for two months'

Chandan Kumar. Pic/ Kartik Bhardwaj

Chandan Kumar, 28, a rider with Swiggy, left for his hometown in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur on March 20 last year, just two days before the lockdown was implemented. With a family of 10 members, including four younger sisters, two of whom are studying, it was tough to pay for their college fees but they somehow managed, said Kumar. He took up a job as a MGNREGA worker back home to contribute to the house budget. Once the restrictions eased, he returned to Mumbai in September, only to realise that his work id was frozen by his employer, and was only resumed in December.

"I did apply for leaves when I left. When I came back I realised Swiggy had locked my work id and I wasn't able to take orders. Due to the glitch, I had to take up another job in Bhayandar at a sticker manufacturing company which paid less. Although my id was resumed in December the number of orders were still less and my earnings fell about 50 per cent," said Kumar.