How separate lifts in Mumbai highrises sustain caste prejudice in the city

On each workday Ahmad Sayyed, a deliveryman with a quick-commerce company in the North Mumbai suburb of Kandivali, aims to finish around 30 deliveries. If he reaches this goal, he earns around Rs 1,000 and an additional bonus.

Most buildings he visits have less than 20 floors, and it takes him between ten and 15 minutes to complete a delivery from the time he accepts an order.

This changes if the building has more than 20 floors. “If a deliveryman is assigned to a high-rise building, he curses his luck,” said Sayyed.

This is because many such high-rises, which can have 40 or more floors, do not allow deliverymen like Sayyed to use the main lifts, which are reserved for residents.

Instead, they have to rely on service lifts, which are typically less frequent, slower and more crowded.

“It takes me double the time to visit such buildings,” Sayyed said. “So making deliveries in such buildings is actually a loss because it eats into my earnings.”

It is not just delivery workers who are barred from using the main elevators in large apartment complexes with several lifts. Even domestic workers, who are regular visitors to high-rise apartments, are subjected to the same segregation.

“It is humiliating and hurtful,” said a domestic worker in Lokhandwala...

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