For decades, the promise of the digital revolution in India was sold as a great equalizer. We were told that algorithms don’t see caste, that apps are neutral, and that the gig economy would be a meritocracy where a person’s labor is valued over their lineage. But as we have often argued on Velivada, technology is never neutral – it is a mirror of the society that builds it.

A recent article by Palashi Vaghela and Yatharth in Logic(s) Magazine, titled Casteist by Design, exposes reality: India’s platform economy isn’t just ignoring caste; it is actively configuring itself to serve Brahminical sensibilities. From food delivery to domestic work, digital platforms are becoming the new tools of social segregation, automating the very “purity and pollution” logic that Dr. B.R. Ambedkar fought to annihilate.

The Pure Veg Smokescreen: Segregation via Algorithm

Earlier this year, the food-delivery giant Zomato sparked outrage by announcing a “pure-veg mode” with a dedicated green-uniformed fleet. While CEO Deepinder Goyal dismissed the backlash as undue politicization and claimed the move was based on “spiritual” preferences, the mask was thin.

In the Indian context, vegetarianism is rarely just a dietary choice; it is a profound marker of caste status. As Dr. Ambedkar noted in The Untouchables: Who Were They and Why They Became Untouchables?, the boundary between the touchable and the untouchable was historically drawn around the consumption of meat, specifically beef. By creating a pure delivery stream, Zomato didn’t just fulfill a customer request; it digitally reproduced the Brahminical anxiety of cross-contamination.

The visually segregated fleet – initially intended to wear green – acted as a modern version of the “Broom and Pot” rule. Just as the Peshwas forced Mahars to carry brooms to sweep away their polluted footprints, Zomato’s green uniforms were meant to signal to the upper-caste customer that their food had not been defiled by contact with non-vegetarian (read: lower-caste or Muslim) spaces. Even after the uniform change, the digital filter remains, reinforcing the idea that the disgust felt by the privileged towards the food habits of the marginalized is a valid user preference that tech companies should facilitate.

BookMyBai: The Commodification of the Dalit-Bahujan Body

If Zomato automates segregation, platforms like BookMyBai automate the commodification of human labor. Domestic work in India is an intersection of caste and gender, with a vast majority of workers being Dalit or Adivasi women.

BookMyBai doesn’t just list services; it hawks workers like products on Amazon. The interface offers worker profiles that include religion, native village, and marital status – all of which act as proxies for caste. Most horrifying is the language of the marketplace: the platform has offered “two-for-one specials” on married couples and promises a “free replacement” within a six-month “warranty” period if a worker leaves.

This is not modern employment. This is the digital reincarnation of indentured labor. By framing the worker’s body as a commodity with a warranty, the platform strips away the agency and humanity of the Dalit-Bahujan woman. It caters to an upper-caste clientele that historically viewed lower castes as gifts or property to be managed, controlled, and replaced at will.

MyGate: Surveillance as the New Shadow Rule

The third pillar of this digital casteism is surveillance. Apps like MyGate, used in elite gated communities, serve as digital panopticons. They track the entry, exit, and exact movements of domestic workers, security guards, and delivery partners- the very people whose labor sustains these upper-caste enclaves.

While residents enjoy privacy, workers are forced to submit intrusive data. The app allows employers to rate workers, but workers have no power to rate their employers. This one-way surveillance mirrors the historical restriction of marginalized bodies in sacred spaces. In the past, a Dalit’s shadow was seen as polluting; today, their digital ping on an app is monitored to ensure they remain only in the service of the elite and vanish the moment their labor is done.

Gated communities are often townships made exclusively for certain castes or religions, and MyGate provides the digital “gatekeeping” necessary to maintain these modern-day agrahams.

Breaking the Code

The tech founders in Bengaluru often hide behind the rhetoric of neutrality and merit. They claim they are just building what the user wants. But who is this user? In their eyes, the user is always the casteless (read: upper-caste) consumer with disposable income. The delivery partner, the domestic help, and the security guard are not users to be empowered; they are assets to be optimized.

We must realize that Caste is not a bug in Indian tech; it is a feature. As long as the hands that code the apps are the same hands that benefit from caste privilege, the platform economy will continue to be a casteist economy with a better user interface. The annihilation of caste must be intentional – it will not happen through an update or a patch. It requires us to dismantle the very logic upon which these platforms are built.