Living in a third world country has its perks; we can hire help for any chore we can think of. That convenience can also be a curse, of course. Factors like trust, reliability, security, commitment, and convenience all come into play and it is becoming more and more difficult to find these traits in a help.
Speaking from experience I have spent 2+ months looking for a good maid and cook and have at least five people in and out of my house yet I’m still not happy about the current one. What do people like me do? Where do we look after we have exhausted all of the word-of-mouth means?
Enter online services
Bless you, internet! For extending beyond online shopping and using the space for addressing real life problems that make the aforementioned online shopping possible. How? As the maid cleans the room I get time to scroll on my phone. As the cook makes that wonderful karahi, I get time to scroll on my phone. As the driver maneuvers the car in that crazy traffic I get time to scroll on my phone. Simple.
1. Maid in Pakistan
“The main purpose of Maid in Pakistan is to humanize the existence of domestic workers and to secure the households. According to media reports 1 out 20 maids in Pakistan is tortured, harassed and raped in silence. Even many maids were murdered by the households. To give them voice and to provide free advocacy services, maid in Pakistan is working hard to ensure the heights of workers. Not only worker, maid in Pakistan has also mechanism for background checking of the worker for the safety of employers. To address the financial woes, maid in Pakistan will provide life insurance to workers up to 20 Lacs. By this small endeavor the dilemma of hiring workers will be solved. By this social organization the lowest class of our beloved society would be socially & financially organized.”
Maid in Pakistan caters to the Karachi audience offers more services than Mauqa Online and seems to be have more options in terms of hours as well – they offer full time, day time, and part time help. They do not have an app though, just a website that ask you for details on what you are looking for.
App: No
Verified staff: Yes
Trained staff: Yes
Locations: Karachi
2. Supertasker.pk
This is a Lahore-based service provider that comes with an app for both android and iOS phones. Supertasker.pk seems to be formatted differently; the model is the love child of Fiverr, OLX, and Gharpar. You need a service, you post that task with its descriptions and it goes onto a message board, then there is a bid for your task. You read the reviews of the people bidding and select one and hire him/her. Once your task is complete you pay COD or online through Supertaskers.pk. The list of much more diverse, you name a task and they have category for that; and in case it is not listed then you can post for what you are looking for and someone will get back to you.
How it works:
App: Yes
Verified staff: No (since anyone can be a tasker the reliance is upon reviews)
Trained staff: No (Supertask itself does not train the staff)
Locations: Lahore
3. Mauqa Online
Started by a husband and wife duo, Muhammad Mustafa and Suniya Sadullah, it provides a number of services with Rs. 300/hour. You can hire a cook, cleaner/maid, babysitter, or care for elderly people. The service is available in Lahore, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi.
App: Yes
Verified staff: Yes
Trained staff: Yes
Locations: Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi
That’s what we needed
I love this age of technology that makes everything so easy and us more lazy. Waisay, this an excellent way for workers to find jobs in these difficult times. Though, the question is, is the message reaching them?
