On Tuesday, June 12, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) will organise a meeting in Kolkata for salespersons in shopping malls, food and parcel delivery boys, drivers of app cabs – who work for long hours with little pay – to talk about their rights and social security.
Maybe that’s a good time to look at the daily life of a delivery boy? This is the story of a young man of 26 who braves scorching heat, monsoon rains, processions, demonstrations, traffic snarls in Kolkata to reach your and my food on time.
The first thing Khokon Das (name changed) does after he wakes up in the morning at around 5.45 am, is rush to the roadside tea stall close to his home. There, he has a cup of tea and a biscuit. His mother would have left by then to work as a domestic worker who does the dishes, washes clothes, cooks and cleans in neighbourhood houses.
Khokon’s father – who used to work as a mason – met with an accident while working in a multistoried building a couple of years ago and a part of his body has since been paralysed. His condition has improved a lot, and these days he is able to walk a bit with a stick. Khokon’s younger brother goes to school.
Naturally, Khokon knows that unless he works from six in the morning to 10 in the evening, the situation will never improve for them. “I try to log in to start taking orders right from six in the morning,” he said. In the food sector, orders on the app come right from breakfast time. People order cakes, pastries, breads and savouries from confectioneries around that time.
With the first order, Khokon leaves on his second hand Hero Honda Achiever bike that he had purchased a year ago at Rs 35,000. Sometimes he buys fuel for Rs 50, sometimes it is Rs 100. “I don’t calculate how much I exactly spend on the fuel. But at the end of the month I am left with approximately Rs 15,000 or so,” he said. If he pushes himself a bit more, then it can be Rs 16,000.
It also means no days off from work. “It is in my own interest that I don’t take days off. If I work on all days without a break, I can take a break when there is a medical emergency, especially if I need to take someone to the doctor,” he said. “A day off means no income. I get nervous if I am not working.” He used to work as a telecaller, selling products over phone, but the pay wasn’t regular. “Moreover, I could not take the abuses in office from seniors anymore”.
For Khokon, the lunch break comes late, when he goes home to take a quick bite. The maximum orders are from lunchtime to dinner.
Things are not easy at work because the competition is tough. “There are groups of five to six persons in every zone and everyone is vying for the maximum number of orders,” he said. There is also the risk of complaints from customers. A delivery boy has to plead with customers at the slightest possibility of a complaint – either due to delay or mistakes on his part – because it can instantly cost him the job.
Khokon studied till class XII. “I couldn’t study any further. Not just because of my father’s accident. Even when he was working, he wasn’t earning a lot. In any case, I was expected to take up a job early on to support my family,” he said.
He returns home at around 10 in the evening, after an adda session with friends in the neighbourhood. “That’s what keeps me going,” he said.
One of his friends works in an “office” in Salt Lake. For the past few months, Khokon has been learning how to operate computers so he can get an “office job”. “My friend works from 9 am to 6 pm, and has a steady income, he gets a salary. There is scope for improvement and even promotion in that job. Right now, I am just hoping I can get a job like that. I am working on it.”
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India’s online food ordering sector has witnessed a huge growth rate – with increased daily orders, there has been a growth of 15 per cent on a quarterly basis from January to September last year, according to data from RedSeer Consulting, it was reported. It says that with better control of deliver fleets, food ordering platforms brought down the average time taken to deliver a meal from 47 minutes in the December quarter of 2016 to 42 minutes in the September quarter in 2017.
Firms like Uber and Ola – attracted by the expansion of Swiggy – are investing hundreds of crores of rupees to gain a slice of the market. The food-technology sector is expected to touch at least $2.5 billion by 2021 from its current size of about $700 million, according to RedSeer, another report mentioned.
Cover photograph representational
