Monday, 9th December, 2024: Zomato, India’s online food ordering and delivery platform, received the Community Engagement & Partnerships award at the UN Women 2024 Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards Regional Ceremony, held on 3rd December.
Launched in 2020, the UN Women Asia-Pacific WEPs Awards is the first regional awards initiative that recognizes private sector efforts to advance gender equality in alignment with the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). This year’s ceremony was organized by UN Women with support from the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
“We’re thrilled to be recognised by the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles for our initiative to onboard women into the delivery fleet. We are committed to building a strong and resilient business and a diverse gig workforce is a critical element in that vision. Our goal is to help women everywhere we are present to overcome barriers they may face towards providing services as delivery partners on the Zomato platform. To support this, we’ve introduced several initiatives, introducing a Kurta as an option for women delivery partners, providing shorter-distance delivery options, instituting two paid period rest days per month, and including maternity cover as part of our insurance plan. This award further strengthens our resolve to keep innovating and building solutions that meet the specific needs of women.” – Anjalli Ravi Kumar, Chief Sustainability Officer, Zomato Limited
Awardees of the 2024 WEPs Awards are selected through a rigorous process that includes reviewing internal policies, assessing WEPs-aligned practices, scoring, verification, and evaluation by an expert panel. The Community Engagement and Partnerships category aligns with Women’s Empowerment Principle No. 6, which emphasizes advancing gender equality through community-driven initiatives and advocacy. This year, the awards received a record 600 applications from 21 countries, the highest number to date.
In November 2024, Zomato had over 2,000 active women delivery partners across more than 250+ cities. This follows the company’s goal, announced in September, to train 10,000 women across various logistics roles, including delivery and warehousing, within the Zomato group.
