Voting in Bengal, help-less in Gurgaon: On ‘10-min’ apps, wait time for slots is 3-5 days

Arpita Bharadwaj of DLF Phase 3 reports booking a slot for next Thursday at 3 pm after Friday bookings, with no weekend slots available.

A Sector 56 resident says they have booked for 20 days in advance because there is no local backup available.

In sectors such as 89, 31, 45, 56, and 57, workers are largely absent at pickup points and instead move directly between successive assignments.

The article notes that Bengal votes in the second and final phase on April 29.

Platform managers say the pressure is likely to ease gradually from next week as the Bengal polling period continues and some workers return.

Narsra Khatoon, 23, from Sitamarhi, reports sharply increased orders with repeat bookings and last-minute fills even during short gaps, resulting in extended working hours.

Suman Kumari, 22, from Darbhanga and registered on Snabbit, says her daily assignments have nearly doubled; weekends are no longer optional, and long days stretch from morning to night.

"Earlier, I got four or five bookings and started around 10 am. Now, I begin by 8 am and don’t finish before 7 pm. The workload has gone up sharply, but I don’t really know if I’m earning more. I get a fixed Rs 25,000 a month," says Rakhi, a UC worker from Patna (age 20).

Platform pricing has climbed from usual Rs 100 per hour to Rs 200 or more amid the surge in demand and reduced workforce availability.

On Pronto, most slots are greyed out across MG Road and sectors 56 and 57, leaving only a single 4 pm slot on Monday; Snabbit and Urban Company show similar patterns, with peripheral areas like Sector 89 having patchy availability.

Users report wait times for instant-help booking slots ranging from 3-7 days across apps Pronto, Snabbit, and Urban Company, with about one-third of the workforce unavailable because of polling travel.

Waves of NCR-based domestic workers are described as traveling to West Bengal to vote in the ongoing Bengal assembly elections, triggering a staff shortage in Gurgaon and creating a day-to-day challenge for families that rely on regular help. Platforms report 30-35% of registered workers away for polling, contributing to higher demand for replacements.

The disruption is traced to a couple of weeks before the report, when regular domestic workers from the NCR area began leaving for West Bengal to vote amid anxieties about deletion from voter rolls following the special intensive revision (SIR).