Balancing sweat & survival, gig workers power on

GUDDU, A DELIVERY person with quick-commerce platform Blinkit, reveals a sweaty face as he takes off his helmet to deliver an order in Noida.

- SUGANDHA MUKHERJEE

It's 12.30 pm, and the sun is already too hot to handle. Guddu has six more deliveries lined up, for which he will be on the road for at least another two hours.Delivery workers like Guddu zipping down city roads in a country that is now addicted to ten-minute delivery, ordering anything from food, groceries and medicines, at any time of the day, are a common sight. But with temperatures soaring, a day in the life of a gig worker is a toss between livelihood and surviving the sun.

"I am on the roads for 12 hours a day. It’s very hot during the day, especially with a helmet on. But it's my job. A lightweight T-shirt, jacket and occasional offers of water from customers offer partial relief," he says, when asked how he copes in the heat.

On their part, e-commerce and logistics companies are offering some relief in terms of extra money for peak afternoon hours, shelters, protective clothing, etc, but workers share that these measures are not uniformly accessible or too meagre to make a difference. Like only about ₹20 as extra money per order during afternoon hours.