In a first, food-delivery giant Swiggy has announced two-day paid monthly period leave policy for female delivery partners. Swiggy onboarded its first female delivery partner in Pune and currently has over 1000 women delivery partners. Swiggy has said that it has been striving to build inclusivity and diversity across the platform ever since it has roped in female delivery partners. The company believes that creating a comfortable environment for women would encourage more women to consider delivering with Swiggy.

Talking about introducing new policies for women Mihir Shah, vice president for operations at Swiggy, said, “Discomfort from being out and about on the road while menstruating is probably one of the most underreported reasons why many women don’t consider delivery to be a viable gig. To support them through any menstruation-related challenges, we’ve introduced a no-questions-asked, two-day paid monthly period time-off policy for all our regular female delivery partners. This industry-first initiative gives our female DEs the option to voluntarily take time off during their menstrual cycle and be eligible for a minimum earnings guarantee during that time.”

Swiggy has also partnered with restaurants to provide easy access to clean and safe public restrooms to both women and men delivery partners. Swiggy has also partnered with Shell to provide their delivery partners access to restrooms across all their petrol stations in the country.

The food-delivery giant had also provided vehicles to women who had enrolled for Swiggy’s delivery business. “We’re addressing this issue in two ways. First, assuring them that delivery by bicycle is a viable option for short-distance orders. In fact, 22% of our women delivery partners deliver on bicycles. Second, we’re also working with electric mobility partners to facilitate EV cycles and bikes (sub 25kmph) on rent,” Swiggy said.

Previously, female delivery partners were allowed to deliver food only till 6 PM but now Swiggy has implemented dinner slot deliveries because that is when maximum orders are placed. The dinner slot deliveries have been opened in Bengaluru but Swiggy is planning to expand the feature to other cities as well. The delivery partners have the option to decline deliveries if they deem an area to be unsafe. They will not be asked any questions for declining the order. An SOS service is available on the Delivery Partner App that instantly connects one to a Swiggy helpline, local police, or an ambulance in the case of a medical emergency.