It was about 3pm on Friday. The temperature was about 35 degree celsius and the roads were empty as most people stayed home because of the extreme heat and government enforced general holiday due to the coronavirus pandemic.
While standing at Panthapath, close to Square Hospital, a Dhaka Tribune correspondent found a young boy, in his 20s, riding a bicycle with a pack of food with the logo of a renowned cafe.
He was sweating heavily because of the summer heat.
The boy, Mohammad Habib, 18, has been working for the last two months as a rider at Pathao, an on-demand digital platform for delivering essentials.
“Everyone loves staying at home. But my job is to collect the parcels and deliver to locations, no matter if it is during a strike, in summer heat or in rainy weather. People need food to be at home,” Habib, with a smiling face.
Habib, who used to serve only food earlier, now is also providing medicines and groceries to the localities as demand for on-delivery services has risen amid the government enforced 21 day general holiday which began on March 26.
When asked whether it is scary to serve amid the risks of a coronavirus outbreak, he showed his arm and said: “See, this vaccine given in my childhood will protect me.”
The riders used to work for Tk45 per delivery, but the company raised the commission to Tk80 since the shutdown began.
“But the number of orders for food has fallen significantly. It is true that people are staying at home, but most restaurants remain closed, shrinking the number of orders,” Habib said.
He completes five to seven orders per day amid the general holiday, which was 10-12 during the normal time.
“But making orders or earning money is not everything. It is true that we have to earn for our livelihood, but it is also true that you will never get a chance like now to serve people, who really need food and essentials at home to maintain their health well during this crisis,” the young boy said again with a smiling face before leaving the spot after an order was confirmed over his phone.
There are many like Habib, delivering essentials to the doorstep of people.
Be it a food item, grocery, or medicine, several thousands of delivery workers are roaming around Dhaka to ensure the comfort of people at their homes.
Ignoring the threats of being infected with coronavirus, they are serving people with smiles and kindness ignoring all obstacles.
Al Amin, a 24 year old youth, works for app based food delivery company Foodpanda.
When many of his fellow workers chose to return to their village because of the shutdown, Al Amin chose to stay back in Dhaka to earn some more money than he usually does, considering that orders will be huge and roads will be empty during the holiday.
“But things did not turn according to my assumption. As most restaurants are closed and many people went outside of Dhaka, orders have fallen drastically as a result,” Al Amin told Dhaka Tribune.
“Usually, around 400-500 people in the Dhanmondi area were engaged in food delivery, which has dropped by half, now,” he said.
Al Amin, who remains on duty from 1pm to 11pm per day, gets Tk40 per delivery.
“While orders remain very low for food delivery, however, orders for groceries and medicines are higher right now,” he added
Foodpanda is sourcing groceries from Shwapno and medicines from Lazz Pharma.
Surge in order mostly for grocery, medicines
E-commerce sites in Bangladesh are experiencing a surge in online orders mostly for grocery items, over-the-counter medicines, and other daily essentials amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Khawja Ashhad Belal, head of ecommerce innovation at ACI Logistics ((a retail brand supershop chain called Shwapno), said: “Since mid-March we have seen a 112% growth in our online orders from Shwapno.”.
“We are using all hands on deck in this crisis. Staff members of our physical stores are delivering the online orders. We have also partnered with other delivery services including Foodpanda and Pathao to deliver products on time,” he said.
Md Omar Faruk, who has been with Shwapno for the last two years, and is now employed as a sales person with its Panthapath branch, said the superstore is offering home delivery for customers at the time of coronavirus pandemic.
“Yes, of course it is scary to roam in Dhaka for deliveries because coronavirus can spread to anyone if social distancing is not maintained, but people need essential commodities too. We do maintain our safety mechanisms while going for delivery,” he said.
“Customers’ safety is all we can expect and that is why we are in this job,” he said while delivering products to the doorsteps.
How will safety be ensured?
Md Abdul Wahed Tomal, general secretary of e-CAB, said they have asked e-commerce owners to give protective gear such as masks and gloves to their delivery people so that they can remain uninfected from Covid-19.
“The sale of products other than groceries, medicines, and daily essentials, has plummeted drastically. Some e-commerce companies were even forced to stop their operations,” he said.
Foodpanda is providing masks and hand sanitizers to all its riders to ensure their safety against the coronavirus pandemic.
It has also signed a deal with Lifebuoy under which all Foodpanda riders and restaurant partners will receive free handwash from Lifebuoy.
