Food delivery workers fear stigma amid drug link claims, police checks

Food delivery personnel in the State rue that they have come under a cloud of suspicion with repeated remarks by Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala linking the sector with drug peddling. The gig workers’ community has raised concerns over heightened police surveillance in the name of the recently launched State-wide anti-drug campaign, Operation Toofan: The Narco Hunt.

Addressing the media in Alappuzha and Kochi recently, Mr. Chennithala had warned delivery boys involved in drug peddling to stop the practice or face legal consequences. He said the police had received complaints that drug peddlers were exploiting food delivery networks to move narcotics across the State.

Stakeholders in the sector said there were instances of peddlers misusing the uniforms and storage boxes bearing the names of food aggregators to escape police inspection. “More than anyone else, it is the workers engaged in delivery to make a living who want the police to crackdown on those misusing their identity for drug peddling. However, the increased police checks in the name of the anti-drug drive have caused some trouble to the genuine delivery personnel,” V.S. Sunilkumar, secretary, Kerala State Gig Workers Union (AITUC) said.

He said the police take at least 10 minutes to complete a routine check, which results in a significant loss of time for deliveries. He called for the deployment of more tech-savvy police personnel for inspections so that they can verify orders in a delivery person’s hand without wasting time.

Thasbeer T.T., a delivery personnel in Kochi, echoed the opinion. “I was subjected to a check around midnight on Saturday (June 27) near Infopark, Kakkanad, while going to deliver food. Unlike previous instances, now we have to open the food storage boxes during the checks. It is causing some difficulty, though I don’t want to blame the police for carrying out their duty,” he said.

Abhishek Manohar, who has been into online food delivery in Kochi for two years, said he has observed a change in the police’s attitude of late. “Now the surveillance has been strengthened. Along with that, there is a sense of contempt in some police personnels’ approach,” he said.

Some insiders, on condition of anonymity, meanwhile, said that drug peddlers have been trying to sneak into the sector, seeing it as a safe channel. “Some of them enrol as delivery personnel and work like others. In between, they engage in supplying drugs, too. While most of us have been working in the sector to make both ends meet, a few, mostly youngsters, may be misusing the opportunity to make some easy money,” a delivery personnel said.

A senior police officer coordinating the campaign said the Minister’s remarks reflected intelligence inputs and police inferences based on intelligence. “There won’t be any harassment in the name of police inspections, though,” the officer said.

Multiple incidents of alleged delivery boys being arrested with suspected narcotic items were reported from different parts of the country, including the State, in recent years.