Paid on an hourly basis, Insta Maids will allow users to get access to services, which include day-to-day household chores, like utensil cleaning, brooming and mopping, and cooking, among others.
In a post on X, the Indian Federation Of App Based Transport Workers said Urban Company’s 15-minute maid booking service “is a blatant exploitation of gig platform domestic workers”, as the move prioritises “speed over dignity and worsens working conditions”.
Starting with Rs 49 per hour, the househelp service has been rolled out in Mumbai and is currently in the pilot stage.
One user wrote that the IPO-bound company was being unfair with the Rs 49 per hour rate. “At least have the dignity of labour,” they wrote.
“It’s unbelievable how devoid of empathy some startups and the venture capital ecosystem have become in exploiting labour under the name of product innovation,” another user said online.
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Some said this is only for positive visuals ahead of the company’s listing. “This is a gimmick to boost interest and IPO share price. I predict that the service won’t exist a year after IPO.””Absolutely pathetic. Just how exploitative and callous could the tech bros be? Every breath is a commodity, every pause a space to ‘optimise’,” one user said, lambasting the startups.
One user protested the use of the term “maid”. “Has no one told them that the term “Maid” is outdated, gendered and in general derogatory?” the person remarked.
However, some came to the rescue and slammed the narrow-minded view of those attacking the company. Arindam Paul, founder of Atomberg, came out in support of UC on social media, calling the outrage stupid. “It is peak virtue signalling. And most people doing it will surely be paying their house help much lower than what they stand to earn in UC( about 180 rs/hr). The 49rs/hr clearly was a demand side launch offer,” his post read.
Many rushed to agree with Paul. “Can’t agree more. UC is a blessing and its plain economics. Pricing will be corrected via supply and demand. If they underpay they wont have the manpower,” one reply said.
“Our goal is for service partners to earn 150-200 Rs per hour thereby having the opportunity to comfortably make 20K-25K in a month along with life/accident/health insurance and other platform benefits,” cofounder Varun Khaitan wrote on X.
“I am a happy user of Urban Company. They are net positive for service providers. They train them and give them work with dignity. They give transparent fees to them. People these days just want to find faults in any good move,” another supporter of the startup said.
Prosus-backed Urban Company, which is preparing to file draft papers for its initial public offering (IPO), had converted itself into a public company last month. This is a crucial step ahead of filing papers for an IPO.
