India’s gig economy has fundamentally changed consumer behaviour, but its benefits may only be limited to app users and the companies that built them. Millions of delivery partners, who are the backbone of quick commerce, are squeezed in the middle amid relentless pressure, penalties, and abysmal pay.
According to NITI Aayog, India had 77 lakh e-commerce and quick commerce delivery workers in 2020-21, and this number is projected to soar to 2.35 crore by 2030. Swiggy reports about 5.4 lakh delivery partners across food delivery and Instamart, while the Zomato-Blinkit ecosystem together engages roughly 7-8 lakh monthly active delivery partners and up to ~15 lakh unique riders annually due to high churn.
The situation has boiled over. On December 25 and December 31 last year, gig-worker unions declared a nationwide strike, demanding scrubbing 10-minute delivery and reinstating previous payout structures. They contended that such demanding timelines compromise safety that has resulted in accidents and fatalities.
Mohammed Ali (name changed), a delivery partner for Zepto, tells AIM that the platforms have strict targets that the riders need to meet to earn incentives. “They say, if you complete 30 orders, you will get a ₹500 incentive. That’s why we end up rushing. The incentive pushes us to complete as many deliveries as possible in a day, which in turn pushes the 10-minute delivery mindset.”
The government and parliamentarians have been stirred to action.
Raghav Chadha, a member of Parliament from the Aam Aadmi Party, stepped into the shoes of a Blinkit delivery rider for a day, highlighting the everyday realities of gig workers in a viral video. A delivery partner talked to him about getting fractures on the job, paying penalties, and earning very little from the platform.
However, Deepinder Goyal, founder of Zomato and Blinkit, recently claimed that delivery partners are under no pressure. “Our 10-minute delivery promise is enabled by the density of stores around your homes. It’s not enabled by asking delivery partners to drive fast. Delivery partners don’t even have a timer on their app to indicate what was the original time promised to the customer,” he posted on X.
Much Needed Relief
After a meeting on January 13 with the union minister of labour and employment, Mansukh Mandaviya, Blinkit scrapped its 10-minute delivery claim. Following suit, Zepto and Swiggy’s Instamart also announced they would remove their 10-minute delivery timelines. The companies also agreed to remove the claims from their branding and advertising.
Satyamev Jayate. Together, we have won..
I am deeply grateful to the Central Government for its timely, decisive and compassionate intervention in enforcing the removal of the “10-minute delivery” branding from quick-commerce platforms. This is a much needed step because when…— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) January 13, 2026
The Gig Workers Association (GigWA) has welcomed the rollback of the 10-minute delivery guarantee, acknowledging the dangerous pressure that such intense timelines place on delivery workers.
In a statement, the association noted that the 10-minute delivery model forced workers to rush, put themselves at risk on the roads, and work long hours under constant app-driven pressures from rewards, ratings, and task assignments.
In conversation with AIM, a delivery partner for Swiggy Instamart, though delighted that the 10-minute mandate has been scrapped, still wants the Supreme Court to intervene.
Has Anything Changed on the Ground?
However, scrapping the 10-minute delivery structure may not change the delivery partners’ reality overnight. An X user posed a question, “Quick-commerce companies like Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart promise 10-minute deliveries. But how much of a city can they actually reach in that time?”
He mapped the quick commerce stores in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Pune, highlighting real routing data and actual coverage zones across major urban hubs for Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart.
The secret to 10-minute delivery isn't driver speed. The average delivery distance is shorter than your morning walk. Dark stores are everywhere, hiding in plain sight.
I mapped quick-commerce infra in Indian cities. Every dark store, real routing data, actual coverage zones… pic.twitter.com/2Ob0bDwi4u— Anup (@anupbhat30) January 2, 2026
AIM cross-verified how long it would take for an order to be delivered. While Blinkit still claims a 10-minute delivery, Swiggy/Instamart claims delivery in 5 minutes. Blinkit and Swiggy have also not responded to AIM’s request for comments.
Similar concerns were echoed by several X users.
“[I work mostly with] Zepto. I used to work with Zomato a lot, but I stopped because we had to travel very long distances. For Zomato, sometimes we have to go 4 km for just ₹30. We go 4 km, then come back another 4 km, all for ₹30. Even for snacks, if the total distance is 4 km, they give only ₹60 at the end,” Ali explains.
He says that with Zomato, the distances are long, but the pay is low. In contrast, with Zepto, the distances are shorter, allowing him to earn more. He explains that if he works 12–13 hours for Zepto, he can earn ₹1,500; however, he won’t make that much with Zomato even if he works for 14 hours.
Last year, Amazon too jumped on the 10-minute delivery bandwagon with Amazon Now, opening more than 100 micro-fulfilment centres across Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai. However, the company declined to comment on scrapping 10-minute deliveries.
Nonetheless, it remains unclear how scrapping the 10-minute delivery guarantee will benefit riders, especially since the dark stores are situated very close to residential areas. As a result, delivery partners often earn less because their pay is based on distance travelled, and there is little incentive to complete the maximum number of deliveries in a day.
Ali notes that wages were higher earlier. “I don’t know why it happened automatically. Earlier, per order, the app would show ₹42, ₹36, or ₹30 as power pay. Now it shows ₹30, but when we actually get the money, it’s only ₹16 or sometimes just ₹6.”
Issues also persist with accident insurance. Not wishing to be named, the Swiggy Instamart delivery partner quoted above claims the platform does not provide any financial support for safety gear, such as helmets, nor does it reimburse fuel expenses. He says colleagues who suffered bone fractures in accidents while delivering orders had to incur medical costs ranging from ₹1.2–1.8 lakh, borrowing money from their families.
“For us, coming from Bihar to a big city like Bengaluru, even minor treatments cost us a lot of money, especially when we are also bearing all the costs of transit, fuel, and safety gear,” he laments.
He says that although Swiggy earlier stated that it would cover his treatment costs for minor injuries, ultimately, they did not pay him anything. However, Swiggy asserts that it offers insurance benefits.
“All our delivery partners on Swiggy get insurance benefits like accidental coverage of ₹2 Lakh, accidental death and disability cover of ₹10 Lakh, accidental OPD of ₹10,000, loss of pay compensation up to 3 months in case of accident, and free, on-demand ambulance service right from their first order,” the company wrote in its blog.
In a report titled ‘Partners in Peril: Testimonies From Platform Workers’, GigWA mentioned India’s economy will be best served if a proper legal framework is put in place to regulate the online economy and improve the working conditions of gig workers.
The post Why Scrapping 10-min Delivery Doesn’t Give Gig Workers Much Relief appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.
