Fast and Furious: Zomato's pure veg fleet is regressive move [Updated]
Don't we have enough divide in India?
Zomato has launched pure veg fleet, i.e. pure veg food from vegetarian restaurants delivered by a special ‘Green’ fleet.
While this is a typical sanskari story, the big question is who is this meant for?
If I am ordering food from a pure veg restaurant, it will be veg food only. So where is the confusion? 🤔🤔 Why does Zomato has to prove it - with green uniform and box?
Just that ‘GREEEEN’ box and green uniform will convince the customer that hey - this hasn’t touched any non-veg item? Really?
Update: Zomato has rolled back the different colored uniform, a welcome move.
Update on our pure veg fleet — While we are going to continue to have a fleet for vegetarians, we have decided to remove the on-ground segregation of this fleet on the ground using the colour green. All our riders — both our regular fleet, and our fleet for vegetarians, will wear the colour red. This means that the fleet meant for vegetarian orders will not be identifiable on the ground (but will show on the app that your veg orders will be served by the veg only fleet). This will ensure that our red uniform delivery partners are not incorrectly associated with non-veg food, and blocked by any RWAs or societies during any special days… our riders’ physical safety is of paramount importance to us [source].
Zomato’s meaty color logo (i.e. red) is Zomato’s problem - not of customer or delivery fleet problem (#justsaying). Creating a separate fleet is the beginning of more divide.
What’s the next step for this? Only vegetarian drivers delivering these vegetarian food? (to be specific, non-muslims for sure)?
This is a regressive move that caters to the regressive sentiments of "pure vegetarian" Indians who believe that their packaged and sealed food will become impure if its carried in the same box as non-vegetarian food. There's no logic to this. This is the same class of Indians who will not eat in utensils that have ever been used to serve (let alone cook) non-vegetarian food, because they believe contact with non-vegetarian food makes these utensils so impure that no amount of washing can purify it [Via: reddit]
Where do we stop this (divide)?
Vegetarianism in India: It’s more about caste hierarchy than being vegetarian
Why do vegetarians in India prefer social distance from non-vegetarians? A look at caste-wise food preferences could provide some insights. As is common knowledge, the ranking of castes is mostly influenced by purity of occupation and diet. In caste-society, to achieve purity of body and spirit, it is necessary to be a vegetarian and religious simultaneously – something best embodied by a Brahmin.[source]
Unfortunately, Zomato just went regressive just to appeal to some community.
Your thoughts?
PS: The title is inspired by a reddit comment