Book My Chotu is a rich Indian jugaad to beat cash crunch and it's obnoxious

Thank god for the class divide, otherwise how were the middleclass/upper middleclass to survive this cashless economy? Since the announcement of the demonetisation drive by Narendra Modi on November 8, everyone has had the floor swept from underneath their feet. Of course, this is in reference to the middleclass and above, because who really gives a damn about the poor?

And while people are dying and the daily wage labourers are struggling to prioritise between earning money and actually having money, start-ups are having the time of their lives. It goes without saying that every e-commerce brand has received a boost thanks to people now actually needing their cashless services. But to take advantage of this present desperate situation is a whole new low.

On one hand we’ve had extremely privileged, class-ignorant, poverty-shaming ads like that of Paytm. On the other, we have services like BookMyChotu. BookMyChotu, for those who don’t know, is an online service that provides domestic help on an hourly basis.

Aside from a horrible name, that appropriates child labour (a rather grave problem in our country), this service has now began offering its services in the, oh so sanctimonious, name of “fighting black money”. In a Facebook post that is being shared left, right and centre, this Delhi-based start-up advertises the following:

Are you short of cash?

Need a Helper to stand in Queue of the bank / atm till the time your turn comes??

www.bookmychotu.com

First on demand helper booking service

Hire Hourly Helpers @INR 90 per hr

Available in DELHI NCR

Let’s take a moment to appreciate not just this brain-dead ad, but those who might actually use it. If you have so far complained about inconvenience and the plight of the poor, and are using this app, you are hypocrite. If you are all like “it’s a minor inconvenience, soldiers have it much worse”, you’re an even filthier hypocrite. And in both cases, you are being very much of a classist brat.

Zor se bolo, we are classist. Pyaar se bolo, we are casteist. #bookmychhotu pic.twitter.com/Hvlche2BhB

— PriyankaDutt (@PriyankaDutt) November 22, 2016

I am not sure why people find @bookmychotu "cute". It's demeaning and insulting and in a way celebrates the concept of child labour in India

— Spriha Srivastava (@spriha) November 22, 2016

Their services provided by the chotu are priced at Rs 90 for an hour, Rs 170 for two hours, Rs 260 for three hours, Rs 330 for four hours, Rs 380 for five hours, Rs 450 for six hours, Rs 500 for seven hours and Rs 550 for eight hours. Isn't it unfortunate that somehow this has become the only way a "chotu" - usually someone who earns their living as a daily wage labour and keeps India's bustling cash economy alive - can lay their hands on a tiny bit of money? 

You may argue that it is creating jobs and making lives easier for some. You may also argue that none of the chotus are below the age of 18, thereby making this a legal vocation. The latter is true, and the former is a just a way for you to make yourself feel better about exploiting cheap labour. But it’s a free country. Help yourself; or even better, get a chotu to do that for you.

It’s like this privileged writer in Indiatimes mentions at the end of her report: “We have all had chotus in our lives who have run errands for us - sometimes even better than us. Why not trust a chotu now?” 

Also read - Paytm's ads are insensitive and they need to stop