Urban Company seeks relaxation for essential services amid coronavirus lockdown

Home services marketplace Urban Company has urged the government to relax norms for essential services amid the lockdown, a move that will allow consumers to avail services from within their homes while helping thousands of self-employed professionals to start earning their livelihoods again.

Urban Company, formerly known as Urban Clap, provides access to home services like repairs, servicing of appliances, and pest control by trained professionals through its platform.

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Urban Company Co-founder and CEO Abhiraj Bhal noted that many state governments have allowed economic activity to resume in a gradual and measured fashion in the second phase of the lockdown that is slated to end on May 3.

"As we approach the end of the second lockdown period, it is advisable to quickly expand the scope of essential services to include all home services, including appliance repairs and service, pest control, home cleaning, barbers, basic beauty services, etc, and include ecommerce service platforms that facilitate such services and service providers," he added.

Bhal said services at home facilitated by ecommerce platforms would help consumers avail these services within the safety of their homes.

"The time has come to ease some of the lockdown restrictions and allow citizens to avail an expanded list of essential services. Ecommerce companies have been a lifeline for consumers around the world during these tough times and should be allowed to facilitate provision of essential services in India as well," he said.

Bhal added that such a move would let consumers to avail services while they continue to stay indoors, and allow thousands of such self-employed professionals to start earning their livelihoods again.

Earlier in April, Bhal said the home services startup had seen a fall from 50,000 orders per day to almost zero in this current situation. The startup employees 30,000 service professionals.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)