Indian grocery delivery app’s ambulance service sparks debate over worker exploitation

Blinkit’s 10-minute ambulance service prompts questions about gig worker treatment, healthcare privatisation, and emergency service reliability

Blinkit, a quick-commerce platform known for fast grocery deliveries, announced last week that it was branching out into emergency healthcare with a 10-minute ambulance service, sparking a discussion in India over its implications for workers and users alike.

Chief executive Albinder Dhindsa said the idea is to provide an affordable ambulance service, starting with five vehicles in Gurugram, a satellite city to the west of Delhi, and expanding across India over the next two years.

Each ambulance is fitted with essential life-saving equipment, like oxygen cylinders and automated external defibrillators, with a flat fee of Rs 2,000 (£19) per trip.

Mr Dhindsa emphasised that profit is not a motive for the service, saying the aim was to plug critical gaps in ambulance availability in India. “We will operate this service at an affordable cost for customers and invest in really solving this critical problem for the long term,” he said in a social media post.

Despite such assurances, commentators raised concerns about the feasibility and ethics of the service in the wider context of the treatment of gig workers by quick-commerce platforms.

Comedian Kunal Kamra accused companies like Blinkit and food delivery apps Zomato and Swiggy of exploiting delivery workers by making them work gruelling hours for unsustainable wages.

In a viral post on social media, Kamra criticised these platforms for “abusing the unfair advantage they have over the unemployed”, demanding transparency regarding worker pay, hours, and accident compensation. “Platform owners exploit gig workers and they aren’t job creators. They are landlords without owning any land,” Kamra declared.

Although platforms like Blinkit claim that workers can earn up to Rs 50,000 (£467) per month under a flexible “earn per delivery” model, delivery agents and independent surveys suggest otherwise.

Temporary delivery worker Dinesh Nalam described his earnings as inconsistent and unsustainable. “It’s hard to make Rs 25,000 (£234) full time. Rs 40,000 (£374) is like god tier,” he was quoted as saying by Livemint after a brief stint with a separate delivery app.

Reports from Bengaluru and Hyderabad show per-delivery earnings ranging between Rs 24 (£0.22) and Rs 50 (£0.46), far below expectations.

The Independent has contacted Blinkit for a comment.

India’s ambulance shortage is a longstanding problem.

A report published last June by the consultancy Primus Partners noted that there were 7,814 ambulances registered in 2020, and after a significant uptick during the Covid pandemic the number reached a peak of 14,236 registrations in 2021.

Subsequent years, however, saw a sharp decline in total registrations, with 12,737 in 2022 and 11,950 in 2023.

The pandemic highlighted the dire need for accessible emergency transportation, with many patients unable to find ambulances during critical moments. While Blinkit’s service aims to bridge this gap, critics remain divided over whether private intervention can adequately compensate for the lack of systemic reforms.

While some social media commentators lauded the Blinkit service as innovative, others saw it as a reflection of deeper societal inequities.

“Adopting and applauding private services that should inherently be a state function will harm us all eventually,” social media user Disha Verma wrote, describing the move as “dystopian”.

“The delivery workers are stretched to a great extent for compensation that is not justified at all,” another user named Ganeshan Iyer remarked. “Ten-minute delivery isn’t a landmark thing; it’s sheer exploitation of humanity to satisfy the whims of the buyer.”

Many expressed scepticism over relying on a delivery app for life-and-death situations. “Ambulances aren’t just about arriving on time; they’re about reliability,” Shanaita Shandilya, a Gurugram resident, told Hindustan Times, adding she would prefer hospital-run services.