Sitting on makeshift mats, made of torn plastic bags, are a uniformed workforce of the newest new-age economy — domestic helps who ring your doorbell in 10 minutes. Armed with backpacks, dressed in freshly-minted uniforms and smartphones, these women wait where shade hits the most in Mumbai's sweltering heat — at parks or lanes between buildings.
They choose areas closest to the fanciest homes of suburbs — so that they can receive the most bookings. "The other day, I waited till late afternoon for my first booking," comments one of them I overheard.
While they make up the gig economy that sits between formal and informal employment, instant domestic helps have many disadvantages over their brethren — who deliver food, groceries or parcels. For one, they can't wait at areas where they can maximize bookings like Swiggy/Zomato boys tend to wait near popular restaurants.
For domestic helps, booking can come from any home, anywhere and there is no way to know which societies give the most bookings. At least technology and data is yet to evolve to identify these sweet spots.
Walk/Run To Work
Anita Madan (name changed) travels to Vashi all the way from Kalyan where she lives — that's at least two local train rides away. She has been told that on good days, she can make as much as Rs 600/day, but most days she rakes in only Rs 200 or so.
I met her when she was frantically looking for an address during my morning walk. The building name was a number, and her app on the phone was already showing — 2 minutes and the seconds were ticking away. She is already behind on her reporting time.
Unlike her delivery brethren, she had no bike (not even the uncomfortable rent-an-EV bike), and she was brisk walking with me. I ask her if Rs 100 or so per hour is too less for her work.
"I get that amount only if I get the satisfaction rating from the customer," she informs. Yet, she holds on to hope, like the investors and stockholders of these apps, to these 'habit-creating' services.
New challengers as well as listed companies are blitzing the Instagram handles of most people, promising standard services, and a novelty for the Indian middle class — uniformed domestic helps. From washing dishes, cleaning kitchens/bathrooms, sweeping and mopping the floor etc, they claim to do all that a regular domestic help can and will do.
InstaMaids vs Regular Domestic Helps
How do these instant domestic helps differ from the regular helps, who come to work in tightly fastened saris and a dumb phone and small purses? At a basic compensation level, Rs 100/hour is comparable to a regular domestic help's rates who works seven days a week, and wraps up her work in 45 mins per home or so for a basic sweep-mop-dishwasher job. Most domestic helps make anywhere between Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,000 per month per home, on an average home in Mumbai.
They also have assured work. They swoop in right on time, anywhere between 7 am and 11:30 pm and most of them are home by lunch time — most aim to reach home before their school going children are back. Moreover, they don't walk as much and tend to work within 400-metre radius and prefer to take up multiple jobs within a society.
I know this because I requested my domestic help to come two lanes or six-seven minutes away to my new home, when I shifted homes. She refused, "I can't walk so much didi. Also, three of us take the same auto to work from our area to yours. They won't come all the way to pick me there, and it's too much of a walk for me." She was right, as walking 15-18 minutes back and forth is difficult for someone who is on her feet most of the time.
Are Instant Helps Safer?
Instant domestic helps, hence, are subjected to much more drudgery even with same per hour pay; and no assurance of work. But the most worrisome part is safety or the lack of it. A beautician who tried to work for an at-home service told me that she was rejected as she was 'younger' than the age-group they were looking for. They prefer ladies close to 50 years of age, to avoid any troubles related to sending young women to strangers' homes.
Most minute domestic helps, I notice, are much younger than the average age on a regular domestic help. Like Madan, they are young women who are trying to work for a "company instead of a household". It sounds much more honourable and is the next best thing for a young girl without other job prospects, and little or no education.
"I tried jobs at malls and other places, but there are none so I took this up," Madan says. The rest of the ladies are those who were doing similar cleaning/janitorial jobs at office spaces etc, who chose this after they lost their jobs. A few I met were tired of working the late-night shift as cleaners in a hospital nearby.
"The graveyard shift had a lot of work and we barely had any minute to ourselves," Sneha Sawant (name changed). They'd rather be part of another company, even though pay assurance doesn't exist; instead of taking up a regular domestic help job. "We can't be just a maid," Sawant added, even though the possibility of safety worries also gives her jitters.
But for regular domestic helps, safety is not as much of an issue as most of them report to other ladies. And they're not walking into a stranger's home each day. They are entering familiar turfs. A domestic help told me years back that she doesn't let her 19-year-old work 'at any home'.
"My daughter is very pretty and I am comfortable with you as you are alone with a baby all day. The other home she works for has two single women. I do not want her to go home with men. I take up all such jobs myself," said Rupa Kaki.
Even though it affects the amount her daughter makes every month, Rupa is ready to compromise. App-based cleaning services however do not have any such checks and balances, and few domestic helps can afford to turn away jobs especially when bookings are still in the lean zone.
Cleaning As Commodity
Instant domestic helps, delivery boys and other people who work for households — are treated in a lackadaisical manner in most homes. A few evil building societies do not allow them to use lifts, and snobbier newer buildings have service lifts for them. Regular domestic helps, however, are treated with much more deference in homes, as without them, an Indian home refuses to run smoothly.
Commoditising cleaning can land even a regular domestic help in a difficult position. A distant relative tells me that these app-based domestic helps are a godsend, especially when her regular domestic help takes an off almost every second week (that's just two holidays per month). Isn't it expensive, I ask, and she says, "No. I don't bother about money. I cut whatever I pay this maid from the regular maid's salary."
Ahem! Most domestic helps do not make enough, and cannot afford to get two-three days' pay cut from their monthly salary. Also, this is the same lady who complains that a software company constantly overworks her son.
While not many people would go as far as her, this manner of thinking can become a dangerous precedent. Most homemakers tend to hold on to cut the domestic helps' pay tendency, and the only thing that's stopping them is fear that the trusted domestic help would quit the job.
With scores of domestic helps walking all over the lanes, penny-wise homemakers (yes, like the IT villain) would get bolder. And, it's bad for women who already work crazy hours for crazily low pay.
Domestic Helps Come With History
Few domestic helps ever have a happy story to tell about why they choose to clean the house of another. Most of them are either widows or abandoned, or are married to men who drink/gamble, or are working to send their children to school or are saving for a home. There was only one exception, Rupa Kaki's daughter told me that she didn't have to work, but was saving up to buy a gold chain.
As per National Commission for Women data, household income and working women correlates in an unusual manner. In very poor homes, the percentage of working women is high but as the income increases, the need for them to work goes down. But once it hits a certain income level, it goes higher again as education sets in.
Women's Working Status And Economic Status
It means very poor homes have working women, but it's not making any material difference to their income levels. Moreso, they are unable to come out of poverty. If they came out of it, like if their son/daughter finds a good job, they'd quit being a domestic help.
But for young women working with apps, it's not just a representation of drudgery. Armed with smartphones and the ability to read locations and accept payments on apps, these women are looking to kickstart their careers – and their aspirations have led them to wait on mats on ground.
The article has been authored by Katya Naidu.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of NDTV Profit or its affiliates. Readers are advised to conduct their own research or consult a qualified professional before making any investment or business decisions. NDTV Profit does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented in this article.
ALSO READ: Chips Are More Prone To Disruptions | The Reason Why
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.