Hire house help in 15 minutes in India. But is the system fair?

On a Tuesday afternoon in Noida, near the Indian capital Delhi, Seema Kumari* arrives in a purple T-shirt and gets straight to work.

Kitchen counters are wiped, the balcony scrubbed, bedsheets straightened and the floor mopped. Within 55 minutes, the home is cleaned and in order.

Seema works with Urban Company, an app that lets customers book at-home services - from cleaning to beauty treatments - sometimes in as little as 15 minutes.

In India, domestic help has long been arranged through word of mouth, with workers hired informally and paid in cash.

Now, startups are bringing these services online, offering on-demand bookings in cities for short tasks. They are entering a vast, largely unregulated market - with an estimated 30 million domestic workers, including many women with few formal job options.

Pronto, launched last year, says it has scaled to 15,000 bookings a day in just 10 months, with demand highest in Delhi and nearby cities, followed by Mumbai and Bengaluru.

In India, domestic work is low-paid, insecure and largely unregulated, as it takes place inside private homes.

Companies like Urban Company and Pronto say they are trying to formalise the sector with training, standardised pricing and digital payments. For workers, this brings new opportunities - but also new pressures and control.

Before joining the platform, Seema worked at a garment factory, earning between 10,000 ($108; £81) and 14,000 rupees a month.

She left the job last year after hearing that Urban Company was hiring.

"I now make around 20,000 rupees a month," she says, adding that the income helps her support her two children.

But the new system brings pressures she never faced before. After each job, she asks for a good rating - crucial for future work. A low score can........

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