After the famous American food delivery app’s scheme caused a lot of controversy online, it has announced that it will no longer accept riders delivering vegetarian food in natural uniforms.
Zomato stated that a separate ships of riders would take delivery of food from “only natural vegetarian” restaurants.
These riders may wear novel green- colored uniforms against Zomato’s signature reddish, it said.
Some people criticized the plan for enforcing caste norms.
In India, eating meat is strongly tied to the country’s firm race procedures. People who say they are “pure vegetarians” frequently use separate cooking and consuming vessels to ensure that the food does n’t interact with any particular type of meat.
Some people have criticized the practice, claiming that it is based on upper-caste sensibilities and notions of beauty. Some researchers claim that Brahmins, among others, have a long history of eating flesh, and that many of them still do so now.
The controversy began on Tuesday when Deepinder Goyal, the CEO of Zomato, claimed the delivery apps had introduced a new” Pure Veg” ships to accommodate its vegetable client base.
” India has the highest percentage of eaters in the world, and one of the most important input we’ve gotten from them is that they are very specific about how their food is prepared and how their food is handled,” he wrote on X, previously Online.
Mr Goyal said that the scheme was not intended to” serve or alienate any religious, or political preference” but several Indians criticised it for being blatantly” casteist” and “regressive”.
Some people shared cases of being harassed by their neighbors because they had ordered and consumed meat meals. ” Then, ordering meat quietly in your vegetarian neighbourhood becomes a little challenging. Owing to Zomato”, one person wrote.
Others expressed concern about the security of the delivery riders, noting that they would then be recognized because of the uniform and clean delivery box.
” This will make RWAs]residential associations ] ban Zomato delivery guys who are now wearing your ill conceived green dress”, one user wrote.
” Will non- vegetarian Hindus or Muslims be allowed to deliver]vegetarian ] food? And if allowed, who is responsible for their health”? another person asked.
As the anger continued, Mr Goyal on Wednesday announced that the firm had decided to restart the “on- floor segregation” of the novel fleet.
” All our riders- both our ordinary ships, and our ships for vegetarians, will use the color red”, he wrote on X.
This will prevent any RWAs or cultures from blocking our dark dress delivery colleagues during special days and from poorly identifying them with non-vegetarian food, he said, adding that the users ‘ “physical safety is of paramount importance” is of paramount importance.
Some, however, pointed out that the organization had just done away the color coding but” never the concept”.
Following backlash over how it depicted a Dalit figure, the platform removed an ad on recycling waste next year. Dalits ( formerly untouchables ) are a historically disadvantaged group in the country.
