Chandigarh-based YouCare provides trusted care for children and the elderly
Healthcare startup YouCare, the leading home care service provider in Chandigarh and Mohali, offers the services of over 200 professional nannies, babysitters, nurses and medical attendants for children, patients and senior citizens.
The amendment to the Maternity Benefit Bill, which now provides 26 weeks maternity leave, has been highly lauded. Yet the limited access to professional and reliant caregivers means working mothers continue to worry how and when they can return to work.
Sensing the need, Chandigarh-based YouCare is on a mission to make finding care easier, simpler and faster. Apart from providing caregivers, YouCare has partnered with over 50 daycare centres, playschools and activity centres, and tied up with home care agencies and companies to become a one-stop provider for quality care.
How YouCare came into being
YouCare was born out of Manan Majitha’s personal experience in 2016. The inability to hire a professional caregiver for his family members highlighted a significant gap in the healthcare sector, one that he aimed to bridge with YouCare.
The platform was started as a blog to address the woes of parents unable to find reliable and trained caregivers, but transformed into a service provider as it grew popular.
Manan Majitha, Founder & CEO, YouCare, says: “From aggregation merchants and service providers, YouCare has now moved to reaching out to hundreds of workers looking for caregiving training and to improve the livelihood of existing workers through better job opportunities, higher wages and congenial working conditions and hours.”
YouCare helps families find the right caregiver by matching their requirements with that of the caregiver. By understanding the nature of work, timings and budget, the YouCare team matches the pre-requisites with the expectation of the caregiver. The startup facilitates the services of a caregiver only when expectations of both parties are met.
Focusing on quality care
According to The State of Elderly in India Report 2014 by HelpAge India (India’s leading agecare NGO), the elder population is projected to grow to 324 million, constituting 20 percent of the total population, by 2050. But who will care for these millions?
Aiming to stay true to its promise of providing reliant and professional care to families, YouCare adopts a rigorous verification process for caregivers. Besides ID and address proof credentials, caregivers also need to submit former employers’ references and on-demand police verification services.
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The brand imparts training and tutoring sessions to caregivers, preparing them to meet customer expectations. Apart from lessons on nursing care and patient etiquette, YouCare also conducts training sessions, including emergency response protocols, responding to patient grievances, negotiating with families on salaries and others.
Jaktar Kaur, a YouCare caregiver, is very happy with her work. ““We will tell more caregivers about YouCare to find meaningful employment and better opportunities. We are very happy with how the team keeps in touch with us constantly, learning each and every detail — from the family’s behaviour to tasks being done as per the contract.”
With a strong focus on satisfying customer expectations, YouCare does routine checks on the caregiver through feedback calls and surprise visits.
Ankur Bhatia, a YouCare user, says:“We needed an experienced nanny for taking care of our newborn twins and were completely lost till we heard of Youcare. Their team helped us in identifying a nanny who met our requirements and was within our budget.”
The road ahead
With a small team of nearly 10 members, the bootstrapped startup raised revenues close to half a million rupees last year and is in talks to raise its first round of funding.
Going ahead, the brand plans to expand its presence in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. With the Skill India initiative gaining momentum, YouCare plans to foray into this sector to improve livelihood of workers, and also encourage unemployed and semi-trained youth to take up vocational courses.
YouCare is also eyeing the use of technology to disrupt the sector. From tracking vitals of patients and expecting mothers to using GPS-enabled tracking devices to monitoring the caregiver’s routine and tasks, YouCare envisions making the brand smarter and accessible. An app for booking, payments, monitoring and grievance redressal is on the anvil. Technology is seen as the game changer for businesses in the coming years and YouCare plans to be the harbinger of innovative technologies for its clientele.