Dekho Seekho a digital platform for the house maids to give dignity at their work places

Dekho Seekho is a digital platform started by Gauri Singh and Juju Basu to give the house maids a dignity at their work places. The idea is to customize and train them according to the client’s requirements. The duo started and launched the digital app in the month of September to train the maids through online platform while they were working at their work place.

DekhoSeekho is brought to you by The Maids’ Company. In a span of 5 years, The Maids’ Company has trained over 1500 workers and serviced over 3000 homes bringing professionalism to the service and dignity to the worker. Of the company’s many initiatives popular to both clients and workers the unique training program was the one that scaled most effectively with the power of technology available to us.

DekhoSeekho is founded by London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) alumni Gauri Singh who has 14 years of experience in the informal sector. Co-Founder, Juju Basu, a veteran in the field of advertising comes with over 20 years of experience in media and communications.

The duo started the platform to give dignity to the house maids at their work places and also to improve them and take them to professionalism. DekhoSeekho launches the app for training and communication for domestic worker. DekhoSeekho is an easy to use bilingual, graphic and audio assisted app that ensures a smarter home by enabling domestic workers to improve their skills.

DekhoSeekho trains domestic workers and manages communication between them and their employer. It gives domestic workers easy access to skill training in turn increasing their income and bringing dignity to their work. For the employer, it facilitates a more professional and hassle-free service.

It has especially created videos for training domestic workers and the content is curated keeping the urban Indian household in mind. It uses graphics and supplements text with audio making it easy for people with any literacy level to use.

“The blue-collar landscape is ripe for disruption”, says Gauri Singh, Founder, DekhoSeekho. “Our experience with The Maids’ Company has shown us that skill upgradation is this sector’s only path to increasing income and dignity at work. With paucity of time and the unaddressed limitations of classroom training there was a dire need for an efficient, customisable and scalable training solution. With DekhoSeekho you can now upskill your domestic worker to a super efficient housekeeper with minimal involvement. DekhoSeekho’s technology driven platform coupled with its rich training content is a more effective and scalable solution compared to a school based training course. We are excited about DekhoSeekho’s prospects in developing a learning app for skilling India and, in the future, scaling across industries”.

The application is launched in New Delhi and adjoining areas and soon spread to the other cities. The duo who started the the application is targeting the workers, employers, cooks and housekeepers to make them more professional in their approach.

It is a dual app platform comprising of - DekhoSeekho Manager and DekhoSeekho Worker. The Manager app works as a hotline to the Worker app. While the Manager can send orders and voice messages remotely, the Worker (in the launch version) has access to over 300 training videos on cooking, housekeeping and soft skills.

The Dekho Sekho features for both worlds as with this the Manager app.

Will help Placing Orders: With a few taps of the Manager app you can send orders to the Worker app. The order will open as an easy-to-follow video, Menu Planning: Use the Set Menu feature and avoid the tedious chore of planning a menu,

Voice Messaging: Send voice messages with additional instructions to communicate with your domestic worker and be done with the constant back and forth, Messaging: Send Whatsapp style voice messages to your domestic worker for any other instructions. This keeps all the communication in one place.

Similarly in DekhoSeekho Worker app. its in Dual Language: In this version, DekhoSeekho Worker’s interface works in both English and Hindi, while the videos are in Hindi only, Super easy interface: A lot of domestic worker are new to smart devices, DekhoSeekho’s graphic interface and audio assist enables even illiterate and semi-literate workers to use the app, The lessons which are in video format can be studied at a time and pace convenient to the domestic worker unlike classroom trainings, Family Favourites: Dishes that are appreciated can be “favourited” for quick access later, Skill level: Each dish is marked with the skill level required to execute the dish based on complexity of method and ingredients.

“Skill development is an entry point for professionalizing and organizing the grey economy. In order to include more people at the bottom of the pyramid to start using internet on their smartphones, apps like ours need to focus on providing valuable content that goes beyond messenger apps, music and games. We believe there is a huge opportunity here”, said Gauri Singh.

The digital application is the perfect platform for the house maids and cooks which teach them different things to improve their position at the work place. The content varies from Food recipes. Videos, house keeping and care and other things in both English and Hindi for them. They have to simply opened the app and learn through simple steps.

"Our approach is Naukar Nahi Naukri and the idea to launch the digital application to make the workers, housemaids more professional at their work place. We provide the training to them with this digital platform and make them polished for the clients and employers. The content of the app is simple and it's in bilingual for the convenience of the user. They can learn new dishes like Indian, Chinese, Thai, Continental and others. The app also helps them about house keeping, care and other in a more organised and professional way," said Gauri.

The duo launched the application and in the next phase they will include the other features like the security and other things for the house maids. In addition those who dont have smart phones the duo is planning to approach the government to include it under Skill India. "Not every maid have the smartphone to use the application and we are in the process to help them. As it's a start up we have less funds to provide the maids smartphone so we are now planning to approach the government to include it in the skill India scheme and in this way we can help those who cannot afford a smartphone," said Gauri.

For the house maids and workers the duo and their team get in touch with the domestic agencies and other who provide workforce to the clients.

With just three months of starting the duo is happy after getting positive feedback from the maids. "The feedback of the maids are amazing as there is a urgency in them to learn and prepare new dishes. They also feel good as sometimes the dishes they learn clicked and they get appreciation from their employers. They are also happy that they made dishes at home which feel like a restaurant after learning them through this app," said Gauri.