Last week, app-based platform Urban Company made an unusual announcement— ‘Insta Maids/ Insta Help’.
The platform, which provides a variety of services at home, including beauty treatments, haircuts, plumbing, carpentry, painting etc., now wants to tap into (and disrupt) a new labour market.
According to the initial announcement, made on their official X (formerly Twitter) handle on 14 March, the platform offered services of domestic workers within 15 minutes of booking on their app. What’s more: it comes at an introductory cost of Rs 49 per hour but for a limited time only.
The platform said that the “partners” are set to earn Rs 150-180 per hour as the service scales and that the workers would also be given free health insurance and on-the-job life and accidental insurance.
So far so good, right?
But before onboarding hundreds of women workers, it is paramount that the platform ensures robust mechanisms for their safety and security.
For assessing existing safety frameworks, we spoke to Urban Company’s active women workforce of salon workers. And what they told us was shocking, yet not surprising.
‘Zero Safety, No Help from Helpline’
38-year-old Selvi lives in Bengaluru, Karnataka. She is the sole breadwinner of her family of three. She has been working as a beautician with Urban Company since 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic compelled her to leave her job at a local salon.
On Sunday, 16 March, Selvi started her day as usual— navigating Bengaluru’s infamous traffic and unseasonal heat while carrying a bulky black bag full of her tools—as she juggled between her appointments. “I didn’t even get a chance to have breakfast or lunch...had a 15-minute-long buffer between two bookings,” she lamented.
That afternoon, as she reached HSR Layout area in Bengaluru at a client’s residence for providing salon services, Selvi did not expect what unfolded.
“I was in the middle of the process of giving a facial treatment. Just as I adjusted the client’s head band, she got irked. She started yelling at me and accused me of wasting her time by adjusting her hair. I told her that I could cancel the service if she was not satisfied and asked her to give me 10 minutes so that I could pack up my tools. But she did not listen. Instead, she used bad language and threw my tools out of her house,” Selvi alleged.
Selvi claimed that she instantly dialled Urban Company’s emergency helpline. “But there was no response. I dialled a second time and still nothing,” she alleged.
She claimed that she received a call from the platform “only after 25 minutes” and that the executive “just asked me to leave from there.”
'SOS Button on App for Emergency Support': Urban Company
Since then, Selvi has been trying to take legal action against the client, who allegedly harassed her. But she asserts that the platform has been anything but supportive.
“First, they accused me of taking an offline (outside of the app) booking. Then they blocked my ID temporarily. Now they are discouraging me from filing an official complaint, saying they’ll block this client from my list. Even so, what if she harasses another colleague in future?” Selvi contended.
The Quint reached out to Urban Company with a detailed questionnaire regarding their safety mechanisms. This is what the platform said:
"As a platform, Urban Company provides extensive safety-related support ranging from equipment to helplines:
Dedicated training module on safety protocols while onboarding partners
Trust and Safety desk: New Policy to ensure Partners’ safety on the Urban Company platform
SOS button on the app for any emergency support
24x7 Partner Helpline
Dedicated Women-only helpline for Safety, Powered by the SOS feature
At Urban Company, we firmly believe in the dignity of labor, and this principle will guide us as we expand this service—creating a true win-win for both our customers and service partners."
‘Creating a Situation Where Millions of Women Vulnerable to Harassment’
In September last year, The Quint reported a similar incident with a 41-year-old beautician based in Delhi. Despite facing alleged harassment from her client, her ID was blocked, i.e. she was terminated immediately and “without any explanation.”
Dr Akriti Bhatia, a labour activist, pressed for the need of overall structural safety measures for women workers. “Salon workers, and now domestic workers, working for app-based platforms such as Urban Company have to go to a client’s house and share space with a complete stranger. With increasing cases of male customers impersonating as women to book services through the app, safety of women workers is a non-negotiable aspect,” she told The Quint.
Bhatia added that the plight of salon workers clearly illustrates gaps in the app’s safety infrastructure— no identity checks for customers; dysfunctional helplines or helplines manned by bots with no human interface; no mechanism for grievance redressal and still no rest stops or access to washrooms.
“They are trying to silence us. I keep thinking what if it was a man,” Selvi mourned.
Economist Mitali Nikore, who has recently surveyed domestic workers, suggested setting up women’s safety help desks, which are connected to police stations. She also proposed that app-based platforms offset their CSR by building rest-zones across cities, which provide water and clean washrooms.
“Without these safeguards, platforms are creating a situation where millions of women are left vulnerable to harassment and exploitation,” Nikore affirmed.
'Unfair Compensation; Income Has Decreased Over the Years'
“Domestic workers in Delhi earn an average of Rs 200 per hour, and it varies according to the area. Offering Rs 49 per hour, even if it’s introductory, reflects a feudal mindset. The minimum wage for an unskilled worker in Delhi is Rs 100 an hour,” said Anita, General Secretary of the Delhi Gharelu Kamgar Sangathan.
It is important to note here that domestic work remains deeply informal and in the absence of legislation, domestic workers are not explicitly covered under any of the Labour Codes.
In 2019, the Union Labour Ministry had said that a National Policy on Domestic Workers was being drafted. However, over five years later, it still eludes India’s more than 47.5 lakh reported domestic workers. Some states, however, have included domestic workers under the purview of the Minimum Wages Act.
“We paid Rs 1 lakh for training and practice kit at the time of joining. Then a significant amount is cut from our pay as the price of product which we are mandated to buy from Urban Company. Add to that the platform’s commission which is anywhere between 20-35 percent. After all these deductions, we are left with little after working so hard,” Selvi complained.
Salon workers—both men and women—that The Quint spoke to for this story claimed that their wages have decreased over the years, especially since the last two years when Urban Company mandated buying products from them; the price of which is also controlled by the platform. Bhatia acknowledged “dwindling of wages” and arbitrary policies as a serious issue that gig workers face today.
Nikore recommended that the cost of the service should vary according to the state and should be in line with minimum wages.
On being asked if domestic workers onboarded by the platform will undergo training too, the platform said, "As with all the verticals in Urban Company, service partners joining Insta Help will also undergo extensive training which will equip them with the skills and certifications they need to excel."
'Fractured Leg on the Way Back from Work; Got No Health Insurance'
As far as providing health and/or on-the-job accidental insurance is concerned, app-based platforms don’t have promising antecedents.
51-year-old Ramashankar has been providing men’s grooming services for Urban Company in Mumbai for the last five years. On 28 February, on his way back from work, Ramashankar had an accident and fractured his leg.
“I requested to claim my health insurance for hospital expenditure. Urban Company asked me to call the customer care of the insurance company, which after many calls told me that I was late to inform them. I showed them my X-Ray and other reports but to no avail,” Ramashankar claimed.
On bedrest for at least two months, he now worries about running his household without work or pay.
The Quint has earlier reported that gig workers often have had to pay for hospitalisation charges for accidents on duty despite app-based platforms promising them insurance.
“Apart from unfair compensation and an out-of-reach health insurance, women gig workers also struggle with basic social security benefits such as maternity leaves, or health coverage for gynaecological problems, including menstrual disorders, pregnancy or abortion,” Nisha, General Secretary of Gig Workers and Platform Service Workers Union (GIPSWU), reiterated.
She had earlier told The Quint about how salon workers’ phones are constantly GPS-tracked even when they are on leave.
“If there exists a mechanism of micro-surveillance of workers, then why can’t it be used to ensure their safety?” asked Bhatia.
'15-Min Delivery Outright Commodification of Domestic Workers'
Though Urban Company has time and again asserted that it “firmly believes in the dignity of labour,” the platform’s actions are somewhat contradictory.
“As if 15-minute deliveries of groceries and products was not putting immense pressure on gig workers already, that the platform is offering to provide domestic workers in 15 minutes. Not only is this de-humanising but also outright commodification of domestic workers,” Bhatia told The Quint.
Nikore concurred. “On the one hand you call them ‘partners’ and on the other call the service ‘Insta Maids’. The usage of the word ‘maid’ is colonial, derogatory and doesn’t treat domestic workers as professionals,” she said.
Four days after launching the service, Urban Company rebranded it as ‘Insta Help’ saying it was “reaffirming our commitment to a future where every service professional is valued, respected and accorded the dignity of labour they deserve.”
'Insta Help Can Complement Domestic Workers If Done Right'
Acknowledging that there is a demand for such a service, especially among young working professionals in urban areas, Nikore said that if done right, it can even complement the traditional labour market of domestic workers.
“Domestic helps that we surveyed did not prefer being dependent on one household. The service can provide that flexibility to workers,” she said. Nikore proposed a list of solutions:
There could be a bidding system, like the inDrive app, where workers can negotiate the cost of their service.
There could be a surge in pricing during peak morning and evening hours to ensure fair compensation for domestic workers.
The platform should follow a cluster approach for assigning work, where a domestic worker doesn’t have to travel too far for work and spend a significant chunk of her earnings on conveyance.
The platform should hold camps for workers, apprising them of the insurance they are entitled to and helping them with paperwork.
As mentioned above, a robust safety mechanism should be in place.
She added that citizens too have a role to play. “The general attitude towards domestic workers is not empathetic. Many are still not allowed to use washrooms or offered water in houses where they work,” Nikore said.
Experts that The Quint spoke to emphasized on the need of government’s intervention in checking the various labour practices (and violations thereof) by app-based platforms. As of now, only Rajasthan has an Act for gig workers, while Karnataka’s draft bill remains under consideration.
“We can debate wages and social security but we cannot debate the safety of women workers,” Nikore concluded.