Sexist Indian ad for hiring maids online goes viral

An online maid service is taking India by storm, offering maids for house cleaning, cooking, babysitting and elderly help; and with Diwali on its way, the website suggested husbands 'gift' their wives a maid.

For obvious reasons, the ad sparked controversy, with many taking to Twitter to share jokes and comments; while others reproached the website for sexism.

Sexist attitudes against women

A picture for the start-up, 'Bookmybai' (with bai referring to maid), began circulating on social media and had Twitter abuzz with comments and was also trolled for its cheeky tagline, "Diamonds are useless. Gift your wife a maid".

The service enables users to pick and choose a maid depending on their expectations as well as the religious, linguistic and places of birth of the maids.



While some embraced the new service, it became a source of controversy for several others who termed the service sexist and harshly criticised the disrespectful tagline.

“The campaign was extremely light hearted and we don't mean to stereotype or discriminate women,” said Anupam Sinhal, co founder of bookmybai, adding that "We would never dream of doing that since women are the reason we exist. Ninety nine per cent of domestic helps are women. It completely depends on the mindset of the person reading the advertisement.”


The ad went viral on Twitter and here's what people had to say about it:

Women rights campaigner Kavita Krishnan also tweeted that the ad is discriminatory while one twitter user even called it an ad for slavery.

Reddit users called 'Bookmybai' a shady startup after one user discovered a disparity in the photos used in their testimonials on the website.

Compiled with excerpts from Scroll.in