'Gig Workers Aren't...': Deepak Shenoy Weighs In On Strike Debate
Deepak Shenoy said delivery workers skipped the strike because they don’t feel sufficiently oppressed to sacrifice their income.
Despite calls for a strike by delivery agents, food delivery platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato, and Magicpin reported a sharp rise in orders, delivering in unprecedented numbers. Ace investor and Capitalmind Financial Services founder Deepak Shenoy attributed the muted strike response to a simple reason: delivery personnel “don’t feel oppressed enough.”
In a post on X, Shenoy elaborated on the situation, adding, “Almost everyone cribs about their job. Even founders do, but they don't have anyone to blame. It's ok to feel like you deserve more, but entirely something else to give up your income for that ask.”
Shenoy also described the efficiency of the delivery system, highlighting the convenience for consumers: “It's sometimes far less than 10 minutes for me, and I don't care, I would easily wait 30 minutes, but the dark store is like 200 metres away so they could walk and deliver in 10.”
Shenoy’s comments came in response to a post by Deepinder Goyal, CEO of Zomato, who explained the operational efficiency behind rapid deliveries. Goyal said that the company’s 10-minute delivery promise is “enabled by the density of stores around your homes” rather than by pressuring delivery partners to drive faster.
He added that riders often travel under two kilometres at an average speed of 15 kmph, and that many Indians “voluntarily take up platform work and sometimes even prefer it to regular jobs.”
Goyal also stressed that while no system is perfect, the delivery model is often misunderstood on social media “by people who don’t understand how our system works and why.” Goyal ended his post, saying, “If I were outside the system, I would also believe that gig workers are being exploited, but that’s not true.”
As per reports, food delivery platforms Swiggy, Zomato and MagicPin recorded a significant surge in orders on New Year’s Eve (Thursday, Jan. 1), despite a section of gig workers going on strike for higher pay and better working conditions.
The agitation had little impact on operations. According to the Gig & Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU), over 1 lakh workers across 22 cities participated in the strike, including 14,000 members from major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and others.
