KARACHI: Tariq Ahmed woke up in a hospital bed on May 18, barely able to remember the car that had hit his motorcycle two days ago. Doctors told him he was handicapped for life but Ahmed would still be called lucky by most fellow delivery boys.
It is barely recognised as a proper profession, but restaurant riders, or delivery boys, will tell you it’s a tough one in this city. Delivering food in Karachi involves manoeuvring on rickety motorcycles through trecherous traffic against a deadline.
There is no insurance against accidents, traffic-related delays or muggings. Most delivery boys have no medical perks or health benefits and if an armed teenager decides to rob a pizza man, the riders have to pay for the stolen food out of their own pocket.
Ahmed was a delivery boy for a renowned international fastfood franchise in Karachi. All was bearable till he was hit by a car in Clifton on his way back to the restaurant. Ahmed blacked out and later woke up in hospital, where the doctors told him he would not be able to ride a motorcycle again.
He was not completely forsaken though because his employers decided to appoint him as a cashier at their outlet.
The franchise also bore the initial medical expenses but that is where Ahmed’s luck came to an abrupt end. Motorcycle repairs and medicines all came out of his shallow pockets.
Uneducated, unemployed and getting on in years, Ahmed is the only source of income for his family and with his below-the-minimum-wage salary, he struggles to make ends meet.
Low wages, limited time
A survey conducted by The Express Tribune revealed that there are approximately 1,500 riders in Karachi alone. They are not provided life insurance and most of them do not have medical care.
They work over nine hours in straight shifts, weaving and manoeuvring through traffic under smoggy and sunny skies and earn just Rs6,000 to Rs8,000 per month.
“It’s worse at small, local restaurants where sometimes riders are paid a mere Rs2,500 to Rs3,000,” said Paraat Imam Shah, a rider. The minimum wage limit set by the government is Rs7,000 per month for a labourer.
Things continue to get worse for these riders. They have a set time limit to make their deliveries, with little attention to distances or rush hours and many riders put their life at risk to meet these daily deadlines.
Many international franchises promise to deliver food in 30 minutes. This leaves the rider with an average of 10 to 15 minutes to get the food to its destination. The farther the journey is, the faster the ‘boys’ ride.
Dr Hamid Padhyar, is the police surgeon at Civil Hospital, Karachi. He said that accidents involving delivery riders are on the rise. “We don’t have separate data for just riders,” he added. But most of them come with bone, head and leg injuries that, in some cases, result in a lifetime disability.
“Nearly two per cent of bike accidents every month in the city involve delivery boys,” said Jamshed Quarters SHO Tariq Mehmood. According to him, approximately 10,000 bike accidents were reported last year.
Whose fault it is anyway?
Mohammad Kashif, a rider for a cafe, said that delivery boys are blamed for late orders which might not be their fault at all. Even more unjust, if a customer returns the order, the payment is deducted from their salaries, said Kashif. “If we are mugged or orders are stolen, that too, is deducted from our pay,” he added.
Shoaib, Irfan and Imran, all riders of an outlet in Boat Basin, had the same sentiment. “Sometimes, at the end of the month we have nothing left,” they said, adding that the slightest mistake is met with violent abuse from both their employers and customers.
Employers at restaurants across the city, however, denied these allegations. According to them, they never deduct money from rider salaries. They also claimed that riders are provided medical insurance.
No statistics, no rights
Shujahuddin Qureshi, a senior research associate at the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), said there are no statistics on the number of delivery boys in the city.
“The government does not have any particular data on delivery boys since they [government] have never turned their attention towards them,” he said.
For their own part, the delivery boys do not have an association in Pakistan. Due to this, they have no platform from which to fight for even their basic labour rights. “Until and unless they form an association, nobody can fight for their cause,” said Salam Dharejo, a former employee of PILER and a labour rights activist.
He explained that an association can be formed with a minimum of 10 members. “If they do not have an association, under the legal structure, delivery boys cannot go to court against their employers,” he said. So until this happens, these riders are out on a limb on their own.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 18th, 2010.
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