bengaluru mumbaibased shweta patole started work as a delivery agent in 2020 when she needed to support her family after her fathers demise working with blue dart on the morning shiftthe only woman on the teamshe delivered between 50 and 70 parcels a day and took home rs 1500016000 a month till severe back pain finally caught up with herin march this year she decided to give up her job now shes not working anywhere but another delivery job is a strict nono its too taxing on me she saidpatole represents a growing problem that companies are struggling with a lack of diversity in lastmile delivery which continues to be an overwhelmingly male bastion advt despite continuous efforts by ecommerce and food delivery companies to onboard more women delivery agents the needle hasnt moved much over the last few years mainly due to a serious supply crunch aggravated further by the pandemic where the rate of dropouts accelerated with many more women having to stay at home in the role of primary caregiverfemale delivery partners across all companies in the industry account for less than 1 of the overall number of people deployed in such roles staffing firms teamlease services and ciel hr services told etchallenges like the physically taxing nature of the job lack of restrooms unavailability of their own vehicles and even safety issues and incomplete documentation keep more women from taking up such rolesa leading food delivery company had at one point asked me for 50000 delivery women i couldnt supply them said social entrepreneur revathi roy ceo of hey deedee a womendriven lastmile logistics company that currently has some 8085 women on its rolls working with companies like zomato zepto amazon and flipkart as well as momandpop grocery delivery shops patole worked with blue dart through her companyroy has now pivoted to a more viable model to create jobs in the mobility space for women through a petrol pump attendant programme where she is training women to become fuel attendants oil changers etc shes also training women to become basic mechanics and work at evcharging stations advt there is an opportunity for a 30 yoy increase in female riders but not enough want to join this sector said ajoythomas vp and business head at teamlease staffingcompanies like swiggy zomato amazon and even cargo are still trying to tap into this pool of talent and are partnering with restaurants to make restroom facilities accessible giving delivery partners menstrual leave as well as developing options to alert neighbouring delivery riders in case of emergenciesamazon has several women in its delivery network through different last mile programmes like amazon flex and the delivery service partner programme said a spokesperson it currently has five allwomen delivery stations in states like tamil nadu gujarat kerala and andhra pradeshzomato currently has about 2000 female delivery partners monthlywe believe zomato instantwith shorter and defined routesis a great value proposition for female delivery partners said a spokespersonswiggy is working with electric mobility partners to