A portrait of the deliveryman as a human being

Organising themselves like the Dabbawalas of Mumbai could do wonders for the pay and status of delivery people

On the evening of January 8, 2022, Delhi’s streets were deserted. The third wave of Covid-19 was rising and a weekend lockdown was in place. It was anyway not a great Saturday evening to step out: unseasonal rains had made it unusually chilly and damp. In the spirit of the new metropolitan India, food orders were pouring in at online delivery platforms.

One of those orders pinged Salil Tripathi’s phone as he sat astride his motorcycle, parked on a street side. As Tripathi took out his phone, an SUV driven by a drunk policeman rammed into him. The impact threw