People visit restaurants to have a good time, in a welcoming ambience with great food. And most restaurants go out of their way to please their customers because they know word-of-mouth and repeat visits make all the difference.

Recently, we were made aware that a few Zomato customers feel unwelcome at a handful of restaurants because of their sexual orientation. This really bothers us.

Not only is this against India’s anti-discriminatory laws, and especially against members of the LGBTQIA community, it goes against Zomato’s core values where there is no place for prejudice and intolerance.

We are also glad that our customers care enough to want to engage with us on this issue, and show us how much they want us to try and address larger issues they face out there.

So, here is what we are doing.

A week ago we rolled out a new tag, “LGBTQIA Friendly” on our app. This tag will be visible on individual restaurant pages and, through this, we hope to bring a positive change in the attitude of the away-from-home food sector across the country. This, however, does not mean that those who don’t have it, are discriminatory. It might simply mean, they have chosen not to have the tag for a variety of reasons and that is their right, too.

The tag is now live in six cities (Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune) and we are going to roll it out in coming weeks and months to other cities in India.

For a Zomato app user, this is what it looks like:

Our team will actively engage with restaurateurs to help sensitize them to how some current and potential customers feel about their practices, and also educate them about the significance of having an “LGBTQIA Friendly” tag on their Zomato pages.

According to estimates by Out Now Consulting, the Paris-based marketing firm, India is home to some 56 million LGBT+ adults. The World Bank estimates that homophobia costs India $31 billion annually.

But this isn’t just about good business either. It is about doing what is right, about changing both hearts and minds. One day, soon, we hope that tag is entirely redundant. In the meantime, Zomato will lead by example. Our mission is ‘Better food for more people’ – and that, we believe, has to come without any conditions.