Comedian Kunal Kamra criticises quick commerce platforms for exploiting gig workers with low wages and long hours, highlighting the dark side of convenience, reports Sayna Jain in Hindustan Times.
After spending a large part of 2024 engaged in a verbal spat with Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal over his company’s failure to address customer complaints and delivery of faulty products, comedian Kunal Kamra started 2025 by taking aim at the quick commerce sector.
Kunal Kamra asked Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa to reveal how much his company’s delivery partners earn.
Quick commerce platforms have seen a huge boom in India over the last few months. Major players like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto are now operating in major Indian cities, delivering groceries and other household goods to customers’ doorsteps in a matter of minutes.
While customers rave about the convenience of quick deliveries, Kunal Kamra pointed out the more problematic side of such platforms, noting how they exploit gig workers with unfair wages and long working hours.
Kamra’s attack began on New Year’s Eve, while Blinkit CEO Albinder Dhindsa was live-tweeting about the enormous number of orders coming their way. New Year’s Eve is one of the busiest times for platforms like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart and people across India stock up on party essentials like soft drinks, chips, ice cubes etc.
On New Year’s Eve 2024, Dhindsa shared an X post saying 1.2 lakh packs of condoms and 45,000 bottles of mineral water were out for delivery through Blinkit. This was among the many order insights he shared during the night.
Kamra, however, was more interested in finding out how much Blinkit “delivery partners” earned through these deliveries.
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“Can you also enlighten us with data on the average wages you paid your ‘Delivery Partners’ in 2024…” the comedian asked Dhindsa.
He likely put “delivery partners” in quotes because delivery apps like Blinkit, Zomato, Swiggy etc have consistently refused to identify their delivery workers as company employees. Instead, they are designated as “partners” who can choose to work for one or more companies. Critics argue that by refusing to recognise gig workers as employees, multi-million dollar corporations avoid paying them a fair salary, medical insurance and other perks that employees can expect.
In a follow-up post, Kunal Kamra elaborated on the dark side of quick commerce, saying that platform owners exploit gig workers.
“While we enjoy the convenience of quick commerce I’d like my first tweet of 2025 to be about the dark side,” he wrote on X.
“Platform owners exploit gig workers & they aren’t job creators. They are landlords without owning any land,” he said further.
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“They don’t have a bone of creativity or innovation all they do is exploit people by offering them freedom that they can’t afford while giving them wages that can’t meet their aspirations.”
Kamra likened CEOs of quick commerce companies to “thugs”, noting how they are allowed to exploit gig workers as no regulations or laws exist to stop them.
“They are thugs that are using data as oil without paying for the oil fields. Someday there will be regulation that humbles them…” wrote Kamra.
His post has collected over 1.9 lakh views in a matter of hours, also finding a lot of support from other X users.
“Blinkit, Zepto, Zomato, Swiggy. All of them. Zero creativity- only exploitation. The delivery workers are stretched to a great extent for compensation that is not justified at all. 10 mins delivery isn’t a landmark thing tbh. It’s sheer exploitation of humanity to satisfy the ego & whims of the buyer,” X user Ganeshan wrote.
“Studies show that over 50% of gig workers report earning below minimum wage after accounting for expenses, while platforms continue to rake in billions in valuation,” CA Akhil Agarwal added.
Source: hindustantimes
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