It’s lockdown time, you are bored and you are one of the few people who still fancy ordering in. But have you spared a thought for the delivery boys?

App-based food-order platforms are facing a big slump in business owing to the lockdown.

Most restaurants are closed, only a handful have their kitchens open for takeaway orders. Orders are down, as many customers are worried about hygiene factors at a time of the pandemic.

Among the delivery boys, those who can afford to, are staying home. Only those who are the whole breadwinners are compelled to go out.

Talking to The Telegraph, Gazanfar Khan, a team leader in Zomato, Dhanbad, said they had around 50 delivery boys working during the lockdown period. Before the lockdown, the number was around 150. “Before the lockdown, we used to get an average of around 2,000-3,000 orders per day, right now we barely get 500 to 600 orders a day,” he said. “The few people who are ordering takeaways nowadays are preferring vegetarian food orders.”

He added that vegetarian thalis and south Indian items such as idli, dosa, sambar-vada, among others, were the bestsellers now.

Khan said that they were maintaining all hygiene norms during the packing of the food at restaurants, majority of which are operating from home kitchens of the owners.

He added that all their delivery boys have been provided with necessary safety equipment such as sanitisers, masks and gloves.

Two food delivery boys, who requested The Telegraph to withhold their names and that of their company, said they were at their wit’s end.

“Our income, which is based on commissions on the number of orders that we handle daily, have declined drastically during the lockdown. How will we feed our families?” he asked. “Instead of our normal income of Rs 400 to 500 per day, or more during weekends, we are now barely making Rs 100 to Rs 150 per day.”

He added that they were delivering food virtually risking their lives. “We have to worry about our own health and that of our families, because if we get infected, our family will also be infected. We also have aged people and children at home,” he said.

His colleague said that they had no other option. “We are transporting food to people’s homes only to feed our own families.”