After the December 31st strike by gig workers, India’s labour ministry asked platform companies to stop promoting the 10 minute delivery deadline. These companies have, on paper, complied.

On the side though, another version of the quick commerce economy has been growing–instant house help.

Need someone to help you cook? Need someone to help you clean you home, or to help prep before guests arrive?

Tap a button. And a worker arrives within minutes.

Here’s the surprising part, though.

The workers we spoke to said that they like their jobs.

They get paid on time. There’s a manager that they can contact in case something goes wrong.

Consumers too say they like these apps.

So what’s going on here? And how long can this model last?

To learn more, check out the latest episode of The Signal Brief.

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NOTE: A machine transcribed this episode. A human has looked at this text but there might still be errors. Please refer to the audio above, if you need to clarify something. If you want to give us feedback, please write to us at [email protected].

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TRANSCRIPT

Kudrat (Host): Sheetal wakes up at 6 am each morning.

She helps her children get ready for school. She cooks lunch for her husband. She cleans her home.

By 7:30, she is ready to leave.

She takes the bus to a park in South Delhi. This park is her hub.

Every day at 8 am sharp, she logs into the Insta Help app.

She’ll stay here till 8 pm, along with seven other women in her group, waiting for bookings to come in.

I met Sheetal at her hub.

Sheetal:  तो फिर आपने जैसे ये ऐप क्यों जॉइन किया।

यहाँ सैलरी अच्छी थी। बस टाइमिंग अच्छा था। पहले तो टाइमिंग बहुत अच्छा था हमारा। अब थोड़ा कंपनी ने टाइमिंग बढ़ा दिया। बस हमारी यही शिकायत है कि कंपनी ने हमारा टाइमिंग क्यों बढ़ा दिया।

Kudrat (Host): Sheetal joined Insta Help about five months ago.

She now earns around Rs 25,000 a month. Before this, she worked in a kothi as a live-out domestic worker, earning just Rs 8,000.

Insta Help is part of India’s rapidly growing quick commerce economy.

In early January, India’s labour ministry doubled down on the delivery segment in this space. After a December 31 strike by delivery workers, the Indian labour ministry urged quick commerce platforms including Blinkit to stop promoting 10-minute delivery claims, part of wider concerns about worker safety.

The companies have, on paper, removed that requirement.

But, there’s another quick commerce segment that’s still flourishing: the on-demand house help segment.

Kudrat (Host): My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Brief. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.

In this episode, we take a closer look at India’s on demand house help industry, through the experiences of the workers inside it.

Kudrat (Host): Quick commerce took off in Indian cities during the pandemic.

Locked indoors, Indian consumers wanted groceries and essentials delivered, fast.

Apps like Dunzo and Zepto promised speed, and built their businesses around it.

India’s quick commerce market is now worth tens of billions of dollars, a dramatic rise from a few billion just a few years ago.

For consumers, quick commerce was ultra-convenient. For workers, though, it had a dark side.

Delivery partners spoke of long hours, constant pressure, and the fear of penalties if they were late.

Some got injured. Some even lost their lives. Here’s some clips of delivery workers speaking about their experiences.

CLIPS: Gig workers

Shaik Salauddin:   ये सारे platform companies इंसान को जो है रोबो बना के सोच के और रोबो के जैसा खिलाने के लिए कोशिश कर रहे हैं

Kudrat (Host): That was Shaik Salauddin, president of the Telangana Gig Workers’ Union.

Shaik has been organising gig workers for years. Thanks to pressure from unions like his, platform companies are now in the process of removing the ten-minute delivery demand.

Shaik told me that he feels cautiously hopeful that this change could ease some of the stress workers face.

Shaik Salauddin:  Yeah, there is a little bit of mental pressure. Whatever the platform companies are doing, this is a little bit of real relaxation.

We are seeing it, but I don’t know. Because the software and technology should immediately change it.

But it will take some time, I think.

Kudrat (Host): But even as the government has asked delivery apps to slow down, another version of speed is quietly expanding.

This time, not on the roads.

But inside people’s homes.

Need someone to clean your home? Wash the dishes? Do a deep clean before guests arrive?

Tap a button. A worker will arrive within minutes.

CLIP: Instant house help

Kudrat (Host): Blinkit, Zepto and the like grew at breakneck speed. For investors, that kind of growth is hard to ignore.

So, VC money has followed into the instant house help category too.

Bengaluru-based Snabbit has raised over $50 million, and Pronto at least $11 million, with more on the horizon.

And then there’s Urban Company.

Already a household name in India’s home services market, in March 2025, Urban Company launched its own 10-minute house help vertical, Insta Help.

From the outside, instant house help looks like the next frontier of convenience.

We wanted to know what it looked like from the inside. For its workers.

Sheetal: एप वाला सिस्टम अच्छा है। क्यों?

क्यों सैलरी वैसे अच्छी है और फिर हमें चिकचिक नहीं होती ये लोग हमसे उल्टा सीधा नहीं बोल सकते कुछ भी हम लोग भी तमीज से बोलते है वो भी तमीज से बोलते है सामने से कोई चिकचिक होती भी है तो हम लोग कंप्लेंट करके कैंसल

करवा देते है बुकिंग उसमें कोई दिक्कत नहीं आती हमें। ठीक है ठीक है

Kudrat (Host): The contrast between the experiences of quick commerce delivery workers and house help workers is striking. The house help workers we spoke to, who work for Pronto and Insta Help, said they really like their jobs.

They spoke about salaries arriving on time, every two weeks. They spoke about managers they could call if a client misbehaved. These are resources that they didn’t have any access to before.

Sheetal:  डिले कर देती है जैसे कोई नहीं देती बहुत सी तो मदम ऐसी है जो पंद्रह दिन चढ़ा के पैसे देती है। आज नहीं है कल ले लेना, कल नहीं है परसों और फिर काम छोड़ो काम नहीं छोड़ सकते पंद्रह दिन के पैसे फस गए वो फसाते हैं। पंद्रह दिन के पैसे फस गए हमारे और अगर हम काम छोड़ेंगे वो पैसे नहीं देती है फिर फिर दस चक्कर लगवाती है आओ पैसे लेने आओ आज आना कल आना परसों वो च चिक नहीं है हमारे यहाँ पर हाँ पंद्रह दिन की सैलरी नहीं देती नहीं देती है या लड़ लड़ के लोग लेके आते हैं। अब हमारा पेमेंट का कोई इश्यू नहीं है इन लोगों से ये कंपनी को पे करते हैं। हमें कंपनी पे टाइम से देती है हमें कोई मतलब ही नहीं है ठीक है हाँ

Kudrat (from clip): मतलब फिर भी जैसे आह एक होता है ना की आप एक घर में काम करते हैं तो एक ही मदम के साथ एक ही फैमिली के साथ एक बॉन्डिंग टाइप हो जाती है वो एप। मैं ऐसा नहीं होता है तो वो आपको मिस आपको याद है

Sheetal: ऐसा कुछ नहीं हम यहाँ वार्निंग बनाने नहीं आए हम यहाँ काम करने आए है पैसा कमाने आए हैं बस अच्छा हेलो ही हेलो यहाँ भी रखते है और ही हेलो पहले भी रखते थे। बस ना हम किसी से बदतमीजी से बोलते हमें ट्रेनिंग में भी ये चीज़ें सिखाई गई है की आपको तमीज से बोलना है मैं नर्स से बात करनी है अगर कोई सामने से मैं क्लाइंट बोल भी रहा है ना हमें तो हमें उसे कुछ नहीं कहना है क्लाइंट को हमें कुछ नहीं कहना सिर्फ अपने हेल्प सपोर्ट को कॉल करके। सिर ऐसे बदतमीजी हो रही है आप कैंसल करवा दीजिए बस हम चिकचिक नहीं करते हम लोग

Kudrat (Host): When it comes to the 10-minute deadline, the workers said they don’t mind that either.

Most gather at the same hub every day, making it easier to reach nearby homes on time.

If they’re running late, they inform their managers.

For now, at least, the clock feels manageable.

Kudrat (Host): That comfort with speed isn’t just limited to workers.

Consumers, too, say they are overall happy with these apps. I spoke to Ritu Raizada, a lifestyle feature writer and journalist who sometimes uses Insta Help when her usual domestic helper is away.

Ritu Raizada: I do, in fact, like them. They’re not full-time helpers that I have at home.

One is a cook who comes twice a day, and the other is a house help who comes to clean and do the dusting, etcetera.

It’s when they’re sick or have taken an off that I hire the Urban Company Insta Help service.

Kudrat (Host): Ritu told me that when she first started using these apps, she was paying just about 50 rupees per hour to hire a maid.

In fact, when I checked Pronto, it offered me a huge first-time user discount and said I could hire someone for just over a rupee.

Kudrat (Host): Now, the math here doesn’t make sense.

Industry insiders say that that’s because right now, the instant house help segment is new. Meaning that companies are trying to create a habit among consumers by giving them services for dirt-cheap rates.

Anupam:  My name is Anupam Sinhal. I am the founder of BookMyBai.com.

We founded the company in 2016. We are a tech-enabled platform for families in India and abroad to hire a permanent domestic helper.

Because Snabbit has been heavily funded, Pronto has been funded quite a bit, and Urban Company is already a public company, they have all the money in the world to burn and make a market for this.

Right now, the market is very naive, very fresh. People are using it and experimenting with it.

Kudrat (Host): Anupam says that none of these apps are profitable yet.

It’s true–this model is expensive.

Urban Company reported a net profit of around Rs 240 crore in FY25, but its new InstaHelp vertical has posted significant losses as it scales, of about Rs 61 crore in Q3 FY26.

Anupam says we’re likely to see two things going forward: either these apps increase how much they charge from customers, or they make their workers work longer hours for a lower pay.

In fact, we’re already seeing both.

Kudrat (Host): Sheetal says she has only one complaint with Urban Company. Working hours.

She told me that Urban Company recently increased the length of workers’ shifts.

Earlier, workers had to be available for six hours a day, earning around Rs 18,000 a month.

Now, they need to be available for eleven hours, and they earn about Rs 25,000.

The pay went up. But not proportionately to the number of hours.

Sheetal: वो कहते है की कंपनी को प्रॉफिट नहीं हो रहा लॉस है इसीलिए अब कंपनी अपने लॉस लॉस और प्रॉफिट के बारे में तो सोचेगी

ना छह घंटे में अठारह दे रहे हैं ग्यारह में पच्चीस दे रहे

हैं

तो वैसे बारह घंटे का छत्तीस हो गया छत्तीस की वजह चौंतीस हमें तीस भी नहीं

पैंतीस पच्चीस मिल

Kudrat (Host): Similarly, consumers too that they are seeing prices go up.

Ritu: Same goes for Urban Company. They started with 49 rupees and they’ve increased it to whatever it is right now.

It’s almost 200 rupees per hour now.

I also noticed that they increased the rates around festival time. Whether it was Holi or Diwali, the prices suddenly went up.

Kudrat (Host): We’ve seen this arc before. At first, everything seems great. Work is light, pay is good.

Customers, too, say that prices are cheap.

Then, as companies push for profitability, they start squeezing both consumers and workers.

Workers report tighter schedules, and more algorithmic control.

That seems to be playing out in this instant house help segment too.

And yet, even with that danger, these platforms fill a gap that India has long ignored. House help work also needs structure. It needs rules. It needs formalisation.

Anupam: amongst the blue collar community, domestic worker segment is the largest subset. Uh, and this has been unrecognized till now, which now is starting to get some recognition.

There are over, I think, three, uh, uh, workers who work as domestic health across the country and another a million outside of, outside of the country. Right. So this. Particular segment needs to get recognition from the government in some form of the other to safeguard their interests Also along with the employer's interest.

Kudrat (Host): Now, there was a tiny moment in my conversation with Sheetal which alludes to what Anupam just said. In case you missed it, that’s when I asked her, don’t you miss having a connection with a single household.

She said it straight up–we don’t come here to bond. We come here to work.

Domestic work, as Anupam said, is the largest segment in the blue collar workforce. And yet, it remains an informal segment where workers are routinely harassed and exploited. Sometimes even in the name of love and service.

And so, any effort to recognise domestic work as real work, and to formalise it through contracts and protections, is a welcome one.

Outro: That's all for today. You just heard The Signal Brief. We don't do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends. The Core produces The Signal Brief. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in.

If you have feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Write to us at [email protected] or you can write to me personally at [email protected].

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