Not our problem, says Foodpanda after delivery boy solicits sex from woman customer

Photo credit: Pexels.

An incident involving a food delivery boy’s sexual harassment of a woman customer in Bangalore raises some of the same issues that first got highlighted when a woman passenger was raped by an Uber driver in Delhi two years ago. How do you fix accountability when an aggregator app connects taxis or restaurants with customers?

First a quick account of the latest incident. According to a police complaint filed by a young woman (who shall stay unnamed) last Friday night, she ordered food from McDonald’s through Foodpanda.

The delivery boy who came to her house made lewd comments, prompting her to refuse to accept the order. That angered the delivery boy who threatened to “teach her a lesson.” He started calling her on the phone demanding sex and also shared her number in a WhatsApp group, saying that she was a sex worker. That set her phone ringing with men demanding sex for money.

Bangalore police acted swiftly on her complaint, traced the calls, and tracked down the 20-year-old delivery boy who admitted to the crime.

Third party did it, not us

Foodpanda has washed its hands of any responsibility for what happened. “We take notice of the unfortunate incidence [sic] that has occurred in Bangalore. However, at the outset, we clarify the order delivery was not fulfilled by the Foodpanda delivery team but by a third party deployed by the restaurant,” says a Foodpanda note sent to the press today, without naming the third party involved here.

Does one implicitly put one’s faith in an app?

When a customer orders food from an app like Foodpanda, does she know who is the third party delivery team deployed by the restaurant? Does she implicitly put her faith in an international foodtech app from which she ordered the food?

These are the same questions that arose after an Uber driver raped a woman passenger in Delhi. Uber claims it works with partner-drivers and only connects them with users. The problem here is that customers have no way of checking on the credentials of somebody with whom they will be sharing a car. It’s Uber who does the screening and customers implicitly put their faith in a global entity that keeps talking about its concern for users.

It’s the same case with food or ecommerce delivery, where an unknown person arrives at your home.

See: Will $23m in funding help Housejoy resolve its home services mess?

Lowering the guard

Photo credit: George Lu..

In India, crimes against women are a shocking statistic. The national capital Delhi reports four rapes a day on average. So, women tend to be on their guard – but the guard gets lowered when you use an app with a brand name, which is expected to have good screening processes in place.

Can’t the number be shielded?