Opinion
Mint Quick Edit | Insta Maids: Keep this gig idea under watch
Summary
- Urban Company’s service that supplies domestic workers within 15 minutes may prove beneficial, no doubt. But a dominant platform could get exploitative. India should let house work get ‘gigified’ only under close regulatory scrutiny.
Urban Company has stepped into quick commerce with a trial service in Mumbai called Insta Maids. The home services app promises to send workers for jobs like cooking prep, utensil cleaning, sweeping and mopping within 15 minutes—at an introductory charge of just ₹49 per hour (marked down from ₹249).
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It isn’t the first to offer this facility. Snabbit has similar quick services. MyDidi.com had given it a shot, but couldn’t generate enough demand. Should this aggregator model succeed, efficiency and formalization would be welcome benefits.
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As with any gig venture, demand and supply will be better matched, while state oversight could ensure that the rights of workers are enforced and their social security is taken care of.
Yet, if these platforms use click-bait pricing to wrap up demand and gain the sort of market dominance that spells monopsony power over domestic workers, a highly vulnerable class of gig workers would be exposed to the risk of exploitation.
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Price hikes thereafter may enlarge profits instead of raising wages (or supplier payouts), as seen in other such business models. India should let house work get “gigified" only under close regulatory scrutiny.
