1 week Ago By Priya Kothari
Pune: Delivery executives are feeling the heat with the summer setting in early this year and temperatures soaring to a sweltering 41 degrees. Many are taking up evening or night delivery duties to ensure they can operate in comfortable conditions. Satish Shinde, a gig worker in Wanowrie, delivers 18-22 orders a day, with a large portion of them in the blazing heat.
"Afternoon orders are the worst as the heat really gets to us. I wrap a damp cloth around my head and neck so that I don't get a heat stroke. Sometimes customers don't give proper addresses, so we spend time finding them in the afternoon.
" The life of a delivery executive is very tough, said Swapnil Londhe. "Be it summer or rain, we go through really tough conditions to ensure that customers' orders are delivered on time. I got a fungal infection last monsoon because of excess exposure to rain, and I am still battling it.
I was isolated from my family, too. Incentives are also not that significant," he said. Ram Chandra Shinde, a food delivery executive near Magarpatta, said that he avoids doing deliveries during the day because of the heat.
"I take up evening or night deliveries – the pay is also better and it is reasonably cooler," he said. Night deliveries come with their own challenges – sometimes delivery executives are attacked by stray dogs, and there have also been many accidents due to night-time rash driving. Keshav Kshirsagar, president, Indian Gig Workers Front, which has about 56,000 members, told TOI that there is a need to issue and implement guidelines for the welfare of gig workers.
"There are over a lakh gig workers in Pune, and the conditions that they operate in are very difficult. Women workers need access to bathrooms, and in the heat, malls should allow access to gig workers to use basic facilities. However, we cannot impose this or force malls/housing societies to help out as there are no laws governing the industry," he said.
B Saraswat, another food delivery executive, said, "Some guards in societies that I frequent allow me to refill my water bottle and even use their washrooms. But not all housing societies allow us to do so." |.
