The restaurant industry is badly hit and it has unprecedented consequences for the industry’s daily wagers. We aren’t even sure how long this situation will last; as far as we can see, the restaurant industry will continue to be in stress for another 6-12 months.

Our food delivery universe consists of more than 250,000 delivery partners (DPs) in 500+ cities. And the ongoing crisis has affected them adversely as almost 350 cities have little to no business — leading to 1,00,000+ riders with zero earnings. Given the contractual nature of their work, these DPs depend on daily wages. They have little to no savings (not to forget their monthly rents, children’s education fees and other expenses), and they have hardly anything going on for them.

Keeping their welfare in mind, we have launched Rider Relief Fund to raise money to support our riders and be able to provide them with at least enough money to be able to buy ration for their families. On top of that, we want to make sure that there is enough money to address any medical emergencies for them as well as their families.

One obvious question is – “Why is Zomato not taking care of their riders by themselves?”. We really want to, and we are keen on safeguarding every family associated with us, but there is only so much we can do to help in this situation. It’s beyond our financial viability to support our delivery partners. Even though we are asking for your support, we are leaving no stone unturned to make this time easier on our community and our ecosystem –

• We have provided COVID insurance to all our riders, distributed masks – to keep them and our customers safe.
• We have been educating our riders and restaurants on WHO recommended safety and hygiene practices. Along with our restaurant partners, we have facilitated hand sanitisation stations at more than 50,000 restaurants across the country.
• Voluntary salary cuts – all Zomans are taking voluntary pay cuts to keep the platform afloat and thus protect livelihoods attached to it. A number of Zomans have taken a 100% salary cut, or donated a significant part of their savings and salaries, to help our community.
• Serving those in need – as we speak, our volunteers are working tirelessly across the nation to get daily supplies to daily wage workers who are the most affected by the COVID-19 lockdown. Read more about our Feed the Daily Wager initiative. 
• Read about all our COVID -19 related initiatives here.

We appeal to everyone who benefits from the thriving food delivery business, that we have created with our delivery partners, to support the community so that we can all collectively see the other side of this dark tunnel.

Here’s how you can donate to our Rider Relief Fund on the Zomato app –

We aim to raise ₹10 crores so that we can help channel sufficient funds to our delivery universe, covering all grounds of necessity, be it daily/weekly supplies, medical requirements and other expenses. ₹10 crores only lets us distribute ₹1,000 to each of our 1,00,000 delivery partners who are not able to work right now.

Again, if you can afford to, we request you to donate to our Rider Relief Fund. In case of any queries, please write in to riderwelfarefund@zomato.com

And stay safe, don’t give up on social distancing just yet!