Domestic help app BookMyBai bans Bollywood celebrities for mistreating maids

BookMyBai app co-founder Anupam Sinhal, in a lengthy blog post, said that over 20 Bollywood celebrities mistreated the domestic help.
File photo for representational purpose
File photo for representational purpose

An online startup that helps people find domestic help has decided to enforce a blanket ban on all Bollywood celebrities accessing its service after finding that their treatment of servants has been “nothing less than horrendous”.

BookMyBai app co-founder Anupam Sinhal, in a lengthy blog post, said that over 20 Bollywood celebrities mistreated the domestic help they hired via the startup.  He wrote about five specific cases in which workers sent to help celebrities in Mumbai were treated horrendously.

The startup, which calls itself  ‘India's largest online aggregator of maid bureaus’, claims to have provided domestic help to over 10000 households in Mumbai since its inception in 2015.

“Fortunately, out of the 10000 households that we have served, we have not come across even a single case of harassment/exploitation. But this figure comes to a rest when it comes to providing a domestic help to a Bollywood celebrity,” Sinhal wrote in the blog.

Incidentally, the domestic help—driver Ram Singh or the cook Ramu kaka or the all-time favourite Kantabai—an integral part of the screen household, is one of Bollywood’s biggest clichés. They appear out of the kitchen when summoned, with reverence for the master writ on their faces, as symbols of emblematic feudalism.

Sinhal said one Bollywood actress did not allow her domestic help to travel to Bihar to perform his mother's last rites. She reportedly wanted a replacement before allowing him to leave. "I have no words to the extent of disgust I now have for this lady," he wrote.

Another celebrity, who Sinhal claims owns a 3 crore car, refused to give food to her domestic help and gave them only tea and bread three times a day. This celebrity’s harassment of maids was so high that the startup had to replace maids seven times, he alleged. The company refunded the full amount after the actress threatened to send in a few bouncers to the office to ‘fix’ them.

Another Bollywood personality allegedly abused the domestic help physically. The company wanted the woman to file a complaint with the police but she refused. "She didn't have the time to run to the police station every time the police called her. Every time she would be summoned she would have to miss work and not get paid. We understand her concern," Sinhal wrote. "Without her support the police refused to take a complaint and we couldn't file a case against the employer."

In another case, a maid was verbally and physically abused and she fled to her village, vowing never to come back to any city, he wrote. 

One celeb refused to pay BookMyBai's service charge of Rs 15,000. "Initially when we called her for our payment, she stopped taking our calls. Later she flat-out refused to pay and said, "jo karna hai karlo!"

Sinhal warned fellow startups to beware of the insolence shown by the celebrities and goes on to warn them: “This is also to put in a word of caution to other buddy-startups who might fall into the trap and end up losing precious revenue.”

“I also hope the legal system of this country improves for the better so that these ladies who work as a domestic help feel empowered and do not feel scared to report a case of abuse,” he added.

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The New Indian Express
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