WATCH: Swiggy’s first female delivery partner in Gujarat is now breaking barriers in Bengaluru
Ashwini Nandkishore Pepiya was Swiggy’s first female delivery partner in Gujarat. She moved to Bengaluru with her family for better opportunities, and believes that women are capable of doing any kind of work.
Ashwini Nandkisore Pepiya - Swiggy food delivery partner
Women are making their mark in the food delivery sector, and how!
Zipping across alleyways, narrow roads, and cutting through Bengaluru’s notorious traffic on a 9am-to-6pm routine is Ashwini Nandkishore Pepiya, Gujarat’s first female delivery partner for Swiggy.
She may have switched cities for bigger and better opportunities, but Ashwini’s commitment remains the same. Getting food delivered on time and without any hassle.
She knows she is breaking many barriers having ventured into a male-dominated sector, but she shrugs it off when we tell her how unusual her choice of work is.
Born and raised in Vadodara, Gujarat, 34-year-old Ashwini moved to Bengaluru with her mother and 12-year-old daughter early this year.
“I wanted my daughter to have a good education. That is one of the main reasons I moved to the city,” she tells HerStory.
Ashwini studied up to Class 10, later got married, and then took up a job as a supervisor in a company. She couldn’t manage it well and so decided to resign.
“At that time, the food delivery business was becoming popular. I loved driving and thought that this would be a good enough career for me. I consistently applied but was told that they took only men,” she says.
Finally, she struck luck with Swiggy who took her on, and Ashwini became the company’s first female delivery partner in Gujarat.
“I believe when women do something different, people do sit up and take notice. I received a lot of appreciation and encouragement from customers who were happy to see me. Women who opened the door would make it a point to chat with me and tell me I was doing good work,” she says of her experience in Vadodara.
Two months back, Ashwini moved to Bengaluru and started working for Swiggy full-time. She delivers on the Kasturi Nagar, Kalyan Nagar, Banaswadi route, sometimes notching up to 18 deliveries in a day, despite the traffic. As she says, “how you perform depends on your speed and hard work”.
“I have good colleagues and customers who appreciate my work with kind comments and smiles, and this means a lot to me. Not knowing Kannada has not been a challenge at all. People are extremely helpful here,” she says.
Ashwini enjoys working because “Swiggy allows me the flexibility of taking holidays whenever I have the need to. My superiors listen to whatever problems I have and help me out. Also, I am taken care of well, with incentives like medical insurance, life insurance, etc”.
Her biggest strength is her family, her mother, husband and daughter. She believes no job is big or small, and that women are capable of doing any work.
The world, as they say, is her oyster!
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