Coronavirus: Swiggy Sets Up Fund To Help Delivery Partners
Named 'Swiggy Hunger Savior Covid Relief Fund', its expected corpus of INR 10 crore will be created with primary contributions from company founders, senior leaders, employees and investors, as well as donations from customers.
By Debroop Roy •
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Food delivery company Swiggy has set up a fund to be used for the safety and welfare of its delivery partners and their families, as the 21-day-long countrywide lockdown owing to the coronavirus disease outbreak enters its second week.
Named "Swiggy Hunger Savior Covid Relief Fund', its expected corpus of INR 10 crore will be created with primary contributions from company founders, senior leaders, employees and investors, as well as donations from customers.
Swiggy chief Sriharsha Majety has committed 50 per cent of his annual salary while the company has committed all its revenues from March 22 - the day of Janata Curfew - towards the fund. The company said it has already been able to raise more than INR 4 crore.
How It Helps
Through the fund, all delivery partners now have income-protection insurance coverage where up to 14 days of income is insured if they are tested positive with the virus. Separately, parents and family members of any delivery partner not currently covered by existing health insurance will get medical/hospitalization expenses.
Swiggy said the money will also be used to provide sustenance support through food and grocery care packages to any affected partners and their families.
"Our industry is built on the efforts of our delivery partners. It is in times like these, that we come together to appreciate and support those who are putting their lives at risk to serve others...I am overwhelmed by this collective initiative to support one another while also doing what we do best, which is serving customers", Majety said in a statement.
Earlier, rival Zomato had said it was starting a fund to help delivery partners. "We are also starting a fund to cover up the lost earnings for thousands of our delivery partners. We also hope that we get government support to help us with this," co-founder and chief Deepinder Goyal tweeted.
Swiggy has over 240,000 delivery executives across the country while Zomato, which recently acquired Uber's food delivery business in India, has over 200,000 such partners.
Both the foodtech firms have introduced a slew of measures to keep customers and partners safe including no-contact delivery.
