Swiggy to introduce paid monthly period time-offs for women delivery partners

"Discomfort from being out and about on the road while menstruating is probably one of the most underreported reasons why many women don’t consider delivery to be a viable gig.  To support them through any menstruation related challenges, we’ve introduced a no-questions-asked, two-day paid monthly period time-off policy for all our regular female delivery partners," it said.

As many as 99 percent of the female delivery partners on Swiggy are below 45 years old and 89 percent of them have at least one child.

The company has 1,000 female delivery partners but it did not inform how many of them are regular workers.

Money Control reported that Swiggy seems to among the first companies to provide such a facility to the gig workers under its umbrella.

Zomato has period leave but only for employees and not for gig workers, the Money Control report said.

However, it intends to increase the women delivery personnel in its fleet to 10 percent by December.

Both the rival food delivery aggregators are ensuring basic facilities such as washrooms for the women delivery partners.

Swiggy is also allowing its delivery partners - men and women - the option to decline orders to areas they think are not safe in order to ensure their safety and well being.

Earlier, the company had also capped the delivery time for female delivery partners at 6 pm in view of safety concerns.

"However, we realized that this move limited true inclusivity, while also restricting female partners from delivering during one of the most lucrative slots – the dinner peak. We’re changing that by bettering our security processes," the company said.

The moves come amid constant criticism and scrutiny over the rightsof gig workers in India.