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.
