Online food delivery and restaurant discovery firm Zomato has set a target of including 10% women delivery delivery personnel in its fleet by the end of 2021 with an aim to promote diversity in the organisation.

“Starting today, we are making it our goal to increase women delivery partner participation in our fleet. Currently, there are less than 0.5% women delivery partners in our fleet and this needs to change,” Deepinder Goyal, co-founder and chief executive officer said in a tweet.

“Hopefully, in the near future, people won’t generalize this community as ‘delivery boys’ and see them for what they truly are – delivery partners,” Goyal added.

In a blog post by the organisation, it said that “To begin with, we have set ourselves a goal of reaching 10% participation by the end of 2021 starting with Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune.”

Zomato to prioritise safety of women delivery partners

While men find it easy to relieve themselves in public while running across the city throughout the day, it becomes a major challenge for women with limited safe and hygienic public toilet facilities across cities and towns, the company said.

To address this concern, Zomato said many restaurant partners have come forward to ensure access to basic facilities such as separate washrooms for the women delivery partners.

“We will highlight these restaurants on our app to showcase their support towards an equitable society. Furthermore, our women partners will be able to rate restaurants on “ease and safety”. We will utilize these ratings to improve working conditions for all our delivery partners,” said Goyal.

Besides this, Zomato also plans to add mandatory self-defense training to its onboarding process for women delivery partners. They will be provided with first-aid, hygiene and safety kits.

The company also claimed that there will also be a round-the-clock support team for the women partners which will focus on expediting emergency requests to prioritise safety.