Blinkit’s New Year Blues

Blinkit entered 2026 with a gig worker problem on its delivery platter. On New Year’s Eve, hundreds of Blinkit’s delivery partners went on a strike across the country, when demand was at its peak.

Delivery partners have been protesting against the company’s 10-minute delivery model, which they say has been responsible for several road accidents and is mentally taxing. The delivery partners also reportedly demanded an end to Blinkit’s arbitrary incentive policy and raised concerns over its opaque penalty and payout structures. 

New Year’s Eve, meant to showcase Eternal-owned Zomato and Blinkit’s prowess during one of the busiest days of the year, instead brought to the fore the tensions with its workers.

But before the day’s end, Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal took on critics, claiming Blinkit had hit record high metrics on New Year’s Eve and even went to great lengths to defend Blinkit, its policies for gig workers, and the net positive impact of the gig economy. 

Workers and labour unions, however, countered with their own math and arguments. As the debate gained steam online, the protest highlighted a fault line in India’s quick commerce boom, which is not just about Blinkit, but yet Blinkit finds itself at the centre of it. 

Is a win-win situation even possible in quick commerce? Let’s find out in this week’s edition of The Outline.

In Defence Of Gig Economy  

Despite the strike, Goyal said Blinkit and Zomato delivered a record 75 Lakh+ orders to 63 Lakh users through a network of 4.5 Lakh delivery executives. 

“The number of orders per minute is higher than any other day in our history,” Goyal wrote in a post on X. 

Then, he went on to defend Blinkit’s payout structure. 

In a series of social media posts, he claimed that average earnings per hour, excluding tips, for a delivery partner on Zomato stood at INR 102 in 2025, up nearly 11% from INR 92 in 2024. 

According to him, delivery partners on the platform earn a net average of INR 21,000 per month for working 10 hours a day and 26 days a month. 

“Demanding full-time employee benefits like PF (provident fund), or guaranteed salaries for gig roles doesn’t align with what the model is built for,” said Goyal, adding that gig work is a source of secondary, stop-gap income and not a long-term lock-in.

Emphasising his point, the Eternal CEO claimed that an average delivery partner on Zomato worked just 38 days (with a seven-hour working day) in 2025. He added that only 2.3% of the company’s delivery partners worked more than 250 days in the year. 

Trying to allay concerns that 10-minute deliveries put pressure on delivery partners, Goyal said that the “average distance travelled per order” on Blinkit was 2.03 km in 2025, and the average driving time was nearly eight minutes. This, he said, implied an average speed of nearly 16 km per hour, well below the over-speeding limit.

There were others in the wider tech industry that acknowledged that it is not easy to build a company that has such a big impact even if it relies on a gig workforce. 

Maheshwar Peri, founder of edtech platform Careers360 and a tech industry veteran, said that Zomato is a listed company, so all its financials are out in the open. And as a loss-making company, it has to become viable first before looking at increasing costs. “They have to control costs while increasing margins. Else, the business model dies, taking along lakhs of jobs,” he added.

On the welfare part, Goyal claimed that Zomato and Blinkit spent over INR 100 Cr on insurance coverage for delivery partners in 2025.

Eternal shareholder Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani added, “I can testify to the fact that discussions on delivery partner welfare and fair compensation occupy a significant percentage of the time in board meetings. The management and the board are bothered about these.” 

 However, the pushback from critics persisted. 

The Dark Side Of Quick Commerce

Despite Goyal’s steadfast defence, labour activists and groups pointed to several structural flaws. Many pointed out that the highest net monthly earnings are only available for top-performing riders in premium zones, and it’s an impossible ceiling to reach for those in smaller neighbourhoods or working during non-peak hours.

Secondly, unions claim that gig work doesn’t account for unpaid wait times, forced availability during peak hours or delivering orders in extreme weather. Workers argue that the gig economy’s flexibility is a myth when platforms control order allocation algorithms and penalty enforcement unilaterally. 

Speaking with Inc42, Sheikh Salahuddin, the president and founder of Telangana Gig and Platform Workers Union (TGPWU), who led the agitation, said that there has been a nominal increase in take-home earnings despite the rising fuel costs.

Corroborating this, TeamLease Services’ vice president Balasubramaniam A added that the net monthly wages of the majority of gig workers have remained flat or increased by 5-10% over the past five years. 

On top of it, he added, the last-mile delivery workforce is not covered by employee contracts and hence does not enjoy benefits like PFs or bonuses.

Critics also noted that while Blinkit provides accident insurance, it doesn’t cover occupational hazards, long-term health issues, or the rising cost of maintaining electric vehicles. 

“A majority of these insurance benefits are not cashless, and the claims are mostly turned down by the hospitals. The possibility of accidents has increased substantially after the advent of 10-minute deliveries. Despite this, there has been no simultaneous improvement in insurance cover and other health plans,” Salahuddin said.

What’s Next For Blinkit? 

With Blinkit and critics at odds and even political figures seeking a ban on quick commerce platforms, the real question remains whether legislative action will finally catch up with the gig economy’s growth. 

Last year, the Centre notified four new labour codes to provide a safety net for gig workers, but the implementation timelines for the new norms remain unclear. 

Kunal Arora, founder of employment advisory firm SKYC Consulting, said that while the new labour codes are expected to enable the formal registration of last-mile delivery workers, they do not give gig workers the right to approach labour courts in case of violations.

States like Rajasthan and Karnataka have introduced their own gig worker welfare laws, but again, questions remain regarding the effective implementation of these laws. 

Critics argue that without clear penalties for non-compliance, transparent grievance redressal mechanisms, and independent audits of platform algorithms, regulatory frameworks will remain toothless. 

Meanwhile, platforms complain that the new mandates increase delivery costs and operational expenses. This will either be passed on to consumers or force these companies to scale back in markets where margins are already razor-thin.

The gig workers’ protest raises a broader question – can Blinkit sustain its current trajectory while tweaking its labour model in favour of gig workers? 

Both sides of the argument have valid points — Blinkit cannot change its cost structures without severely scaling back and reducing the number of gig workers. And at the same time, long-term gig workers should get some form of guarantee on pay and incentives. 

And one must not forget that this is not just about Blinkit. The focus is on the company because it leads the quick commerce market, but Instamart and Zepto have similar policies as Blinkit and Zomato. Eternal being one of the biggest tech companies benefitting from the gig economy has come under the spotlight.  

Will the New Year’s Eve flashpoint change anything for Blinkit or its delivery workers? The company seems to have weathered the storm — but this is not an issue that can be put to bed overnight. Every bad experience is likely to be magnified, so a risk still lurks in the shadows. 

Edited By Shishir Parasher